Dr Zafar Altaf
The best coached team in the world is the England team. If coaching was the essential element they should not have lost a single Test series. Our fighting chicken-hearted leaders in charge of cricket are following the rules given by the cricketing countries.
We now have a batting coach, a bowling coach, a fielding coach and a head coach [as if all the others are without a head]. Some belong to Pakistan while some are from other countries. One of them is from a country that had violated the laws of humanity by practicing apartheid. The culture of the foreign coaches is different from the culture of the average Pakistani. Tell me what the culture of the average Pakistani is?
Mushtaq, Waqar Younis have come in as coaches from the country. What was the basis for selection? Let me tell you that I know both of them personally and they are fine specimen as cricketers. They have been prominent [not eminent] in the game and have graduated and served Pakistan well. Both of them are also team men. So far as I have read their personality this is what I think of them.
I do not know the foreign coaches. But their culture is different from ours. I made this point when Boycott was brought in. Boycott was a professional and a loner. His single-minded ability to be efficient overrode everything. A perfectionist is always devoid of human values and considerations. Was he not the one who said that he would send his mother in law [he did not have a mother in law then] to the subcontinent and not go himself. I am not bothered about the personal doings of a person but when he denigrates another country he is telling the country that he is superior to that country. Well, I will have no consort with that individual no matter what his station in life. Having given my perspective? One cannot live in two cultures. The definition of professionalism as envisaged in our culture is different from that in the UK and even different in Australia.
So what are we looking in a coach? It is paradoxical that the coach is neither all hands on nor all hands off but is positively available all the time to the person that wants advice. When we were playing cricket the mobile phone had not been adopted but there was still that aggravation that one saw in the India-Pakistan series. It was much worse than from what it is now. Partition and the wounds of the great divide had affected the way sports were played. Yet before partition there was the Pentangular tournament in which Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Parsis participated and all had their nets at the Brabourne Stadium. Seven decade on the culture of sportsmen spirit has taken a hit.
The coaches will have to breed a new repertoire of management styles. And here lies the crunch for the great cricketers are great because of their cricketing ability but when it comes to management we are treading virgin areas. Very few cricketers have been on that route in life. By definition coaching aims to enhance the performance and the learning ability of others. Do our coaches contemplate coaching at work? Do they know what the clientele requirements are? Each man is an island to himself and each man has to be treated differently. It is not the raw material of a seven year old that one is dealing with but a complex person who vies for his country at the highest level. Does he need coaching or a systematic effort at developing a mindset? The debate is unending. But reasonable people debate this. Unfortunately we do not have such a forum. Does the coach tell his clientele what is required or does he get in to a dialogue to enquire as to how the person sees his issues and problems. Do they belong to the cricket area or are they with the cricketing management. How will the PCB sees its icons and mandarins? Do they see them as potential threat to be taken care off of the field? In one such episode a commentator, just before a match asked a great phenomenon of a bowler as to whether he can ever win a match by his batting rather than his bowling. I was astonished and I am not going to name this commentator or the cricketer because one is dead and the other is cricketing wise retired.
Are the coaches in deep interaction with the players to elicit a response and a feedback on their actions? How will the coaching session be structured? Will the nets be collectively used or will they be individually handled? Will our coaches be able to handle the different styles and then diagnose the problems before administering the medicine[s]. Is the prescription going to conform to the diagnostic abilities? Do these coaches have the time to settle into their jobs and not be in a hurry and is it possible that the PCB management will allow them to develop themselves over a time. Yes even coaches are humans and even they have their troubles and turmoil? When and if they lose a series will the PCB have the courage to accept that the other team may have been better or as we have seen draw blood and pass the buck to the team management and the captain when the problem may have been deeper?
There are other aspects of the game that will be in discussion at another time but the fact remains that we are unable to analyze ourselves to come to a correct perspective on the aspects of the game. Coaching is required at an early stage for our youngsters. It gets more complicated as we proceed to a higher level. There are a number of caveats that have to be addressed for coaching is a serious matter and it can be converted in to a regular employment scheme systematically. There was a time when I had considered the setting up of coaches in the Ministry of sports and all those who had played a certain number of tests would if they so wanted become coaches in grade 20 [as Joint secretary]. We were trying to create another dimension of graduation. Was that a bad thing? The idea was to improve the population of cricket and take it to the rural areas.
Cricketers would have a status and a dimension which they had not seen before. Sadly they preferred to be used by Kerry packer and the one off fight that he had with the Australian Cricket Board. Some other time we will be able to draw from the documents to determine who intrigued with whom. Remember we are all passing shows. We will leave the stage sometime and it is in the nature of man that the good will be interred with his body but the evil will stay behind. So why not accept Shakespeare’s verdict and leave no evil behind so that you are remembered well and in soft terms. Coaches have to deter and defer their preferences in favor of a life that is without prejudice.
Cricket as well as all sports can give our character a lot of strength. The nation can be made in to an image of the game we play. We are allowing a great chance to be lost. I know of no game in which the opposing player is as appreciated as in this game. Hate is for the mean and the rapacious. Keep on trying to eschew hate and prejudice. Can we be free of cronyism? The PCB certainly cannot be as past events have shown. Can this PCB then perform out of character and for the betterment of the game? I will leave the answer to you. Guess!!!