Former Pakistan cricket chiefs and Test players were left disappointed with the national team’s Test series whitewash to South Africa, citing lack of professionalism as the reason for the downfall of Dav Whatmore’s men.
Pakistan appeared to be a complete mismatch for the number one Test side as they lost all three matches. The tourists faced defeat in the first Test by a margin of 211 runs and went down in Cape Town by four wickets to ensure a series win for South Africa. And then, their hopes of claiming back some pride were dismissed after they were annihilated in Centurion by an innings and 19 runs in the final Test.
Pakistan captain Misbahul Haq provided various reasons for his team’s failure, blaming injuries, flopped batting and lack of Test exposure.
However, former PCB chief Khalid Mehmood believed the real problem was related to management issues, which led to the team’s embarrassing defeat.
“I didn’t see any special preparations for such a big series,” Mehmood told The Express Tribune. “Our team wasn’t acclimatised with conditions in South Africa since they had played in familiar conditions in the UAE, Sri Lanka or India before this series.
“It was an extraordinary competition for the team but it was not given proper preparations for it.”
Mehmood said he was surprised to see Whatmore not making any special preparations for the series.
“Even in the past, our cricketers used to make special arrangements before a series in Australia or England like practicing with a wet tennis ball.
“Whatmore is a big name in coaching and has loads of experience on him. It is beyond me why we went under-prepared for such a high-profile series. The reason why our batsmen and bowlers looked helpless against South Africa was because they were not given appropriate preparation.
“Whatmore is entirely responsible and he should be taken to task for this defeat.”
Mehmood, however restrained from criticising the under-fire selection committee, saying there was not much to be questioned, since Pakistan have a limited pool of players ready for Test cricket.
But former chairman Ijaz Butt believes ‘poor selection’, along with dismal team management was the reason for failure in the series.
“The team management and selection committee should resign by accepting responsibility for the loss,” said Butt.
Poor strategy cost us dearly, says Moin
Meanwhile, former captain Moin Khan, while blaming Whatmore and Misbah, said poor strategy was the reason why the team suffered a whitewash.
“It’s also a failure of the team management,” said the former captain. “We saw players repeating mistakes again and again in the series. This happened because of poor strategy and planning. We continued to change combinations throughout the series.
“Our bowlers have been our strength but we came up with a changed attack in every match. I have failed to understand the strategy of the team management.”
Mohsin Khan, the former coach, who mentored Pakistan to a clean-sweep against England, said the team looked below-par in the entire series.
“The determination and killer instinct was missing in the entire series,” said the former coach. “It is the responsibility of the team management to motivate players during tough times. It failed to get a combined effort from players throughout the series.”
Moin Khan
“Our bowlers have been our strength but we came up with a different attack in every match. I have failed to understand the strategy of the team management.”
Khalid Mehmood
“It was due to poor preparations that our batsmen and bowlers
looked helpless against South Africa. Whatmore is entirely responsible for this defeat.”
Mohsin Khan
“The determination and killer instinct was missing. It is the responsibility of the team management to motivate players during tough times. It failed to get a combined effort.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2013.
COMMENTS (21)
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No Point in blaming the management if the players themselves do not execute their plans properly. I mean if the coach says to Bowl a yorker to Hashim Amla when he is new to the crease... and the bowlers bowl half trackers then who is to be blamed? Coach or Players
It is time to send Younas Khan, Sarfraz and Misbah home. Hafeez is also no good for test cricket. Bring Umar, Adnan Akmal and M Yousaf back in the team.
@Mriza & Mian Nawaz Sharif: Why you guys are quoating Afridis's name he was not even in team. For GOD sake leave him there other issues as well to disucss and one more thing Nawas Sharif I guess you tried to crack a joke. It was very poor effort.
It's also time we remove Hafeez from the test side. He should play some domestic matches to learn how to bat in a test match. Saeed Ajmal made more runs in the series then Hafeez, why don't we give the opening to Ajmal and Irfan? That would be a good experience. LOL
Here is the performance of our opening batsman and next captain Hafiz. "In all, he scored only five runs off Steyn and was dismissed by him four times." His average was not even 8 runs and the highest in 6 innings was 18 with two ducks. Let us reward him for his failure just like we rewarded Salman Butt with captaincy and dropped M. Yousuf. Let us put the average of all batsmen and drop those who failed consistently and miserably. Afridi and Hafiz are great against mediocre teams and on dead wickets but fail miserably on fast wickets against moving balls.
please use my name; the last post was not mine.
The problem is that we don't have allrounders in the team and wc can't bat.
Mishab is stil the best captain; his confidence has been shaken by design by making Hafeez t20 capatin and suggesting that he could be replaced anytime.
No team in the world can perform in test cricket with such a long tail. The selection committee deliberately handicapped Watmore to fail him.
t20 - captain Hafeez One-days - captain Shoaib Malik Test - No captain; coach should act as non-playing captain; we don't have any brain ...... but coach should be Mohsin
Search for Misbahas (tuk tuk) from all over Pakistan and make a Test Team and make Misbah Captain for the next three years; pressure off, he will deliver. Mohsin as coach
Search for Afridis (passion without barin) and make Afridi capatin of t20 for the next three years; pressure off, he will deliver. Wasim Akram as coach
Search for Umer Akmals and make Umer captain of one-dayers for the next three years; pressure off he will deliver; Shoib Malik as coach
Mohsin was the right coach for Pakistan!
@Animal Farm Desi, Hmmm....very good point. Hadn't think this way. But still not this way of getting defeated as we did. But overall I agree "cricket is not an even playing field", great argument!
@Animal Farm - Desi: great point; totally agree.
@ Animal Farm _ Desi; I tottaly agree. We get over critical and forget what happens to these teams when they play on spinning wickets but we keep on humilitating our crickerts.
@ Amer; I also agree with your point of view
I am surprised that Ijaz Butt has the audacity to chastise selection committee when his own selection committee made blunders on the tour of England in 2010 and played with youngest & untried batting line up that were folded thrice below 100 runs.
@Animal Farm - Desi: I agree with your logic but then the question is simple: Why are we paying Whatmore so much when we were doing fine with Mohsin Khan? If we would have lost the series 3-0 in any case then why spend so much on a useless coach? Just because he's a gora? At least under Mohsin we were grooming new talent, I don't see that happening these days!
Just waste of tex payers money on Mr. Dav Whatmore.......?????
I fail to understand that WHY the so called cricket pundits and the crazy cricket fans fail to realise that cricket is NOT an "even playing field". Australia, South Africa, and England mostly struggle when they come to play in the sub continent. While Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka find it difficult to play in those conditions. They play well on the bouncy fast tacks and struggle on the spinning tracks and vice versa. Well there are always exceptions but end of the day, cricket is not like football as the pitches play a critical role here... and everyone prepares pitches as they suit them. When the South Africa will come to play Pakistan in the UAE, result will be different (well you never know Pakistan!) as it happened to England when they played against Pakistan soon after a disastrous tour of England by Pakistan.
Yeah , blame whoever you can. Why can't people just realize that this team didn't have enough skills to beat a team like S.A in their own backyard. You can't acquire those skills overnight.
With fighting spirit , better management etc. Pakistan could have avoided an innings defeat or draw the cape town match. Series loss was inevitable.
Send more A team tours to S.A, England , Australia so that they get exposure.
Very Gud Game Boys - keep up the gud game.