Azhar must not be made to suffer a Waqar crash

While there is little doubt that Waqar was one of the finest pacers, the jury on his coaching is still out there

A couple of years ago, Waqar Younis spoke against modern-day coaching methods of fast-bowlers being asked to gather momentum at the crease by bringing both their arms close to the chest, then locking their non-bowling arm and moving it down with greater velocity.

Waqar’s view of the technique was that bowlers should be allowed to bowl naturally and their body dynamic should not be changed, instead the coaches should look to maximise the pacemen’s output, ensuring that bowlers do not lose the originality that often gives them the edge in these batsmen-dominated times.

He now needs to pay heed to his own words and allow new captain Azhar Ali to bloom into a leader on his own rather than enforce his will on the skipper. If he is able to bring the best out of Azhar, then that may be Waqar’s biggest achievement as a coach so far.

While there is little doubt that Waqar was one of the finest pacers to have ever played the game, the jury on his coaching is still out there. In two tenures, Waqar is yet to earn the same respect or reach the dizzying heights that he did as a player.

In his first stint, he had to deal with the aggressive Shahid Afridi, and there was never enough room to accommodate two such authoritative personalities in the same dressing room.

It has therefore understandably been a much smoother second spell as Waqar was able to work better with the calmer Misbahul Haq.

It was Misbah who bore the brunt of the management’s poor decision, targeted by former players and media alike, while Waqar was able to get away scot-free without shouldering his share of the blame.

Waqar now will have to deal with another kind of leadership in the form of the moderate Azhar Ali — not as aggressive as Afridi, neither as conservative as Misbah.

The head coach would do well to remember his words— he cannot produce a clone of his ideal captain nor does he need to.

Now that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to move in a different direction, Azhar should be allowed to bring in his own plans and show his capabilities as a captain instead of playing second fiddle to Waqar and his whims.

It is important for Azhar to shrug off the tag that he has been brought at the helm for being someone in Misbah’s mould. If he doesn’t, the media-men will target him just as they targeted his predecessor.

Azhar was not an automatic choice for either the PCB or those in the team management as they wanted Sohaib Maqsood to take over from Misbah but the Multan-based player could not perform according to his potential in the World Cup and thus lost out in the race of captaincy.

Similarly, Ahmed Shehzad was sidelined due to ‘behavioural issues’ while a natural leader in Sarfraz Ahmed has been made the understudy in the ODI and T20I formats to groom him as the next captain.

Azhar may not be the best of leaders but he is certainly not the worst and should be given a good run of games to prove himself, irrespective of results in two or three series.

Waqar needs to stand by him and take equal responsibility in the future because if anything does go wrong, it will be Azhar who will be taking the fall as the pundits will see him as the easier target.

The team’s planning should revolve around Azhar’s characterstics and not Waqar’s. The new captain should herald in a new era, not be a Misbah 2.0. Waqar, must do as he preaches.

 

 

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