Manager, coach, captain responsible for debacle

Pakistan's pathetic performance in the World Cup and its postmortem demanded an in depth analysis. But what is obvious is the failure of three top characters Waqar Younis, Richard Pybus and Mr Shaharyar Khan - the captain, coach and manager respectively.

This triumvirate was supposed to lead but only succeeded in letting down the team. Their loudmouthed bluster before departure about winning the prized cup turned out to be tragic comedy.

Given our sentimental mind-set, we were swept off our feet by this high flown hype forgetting the ground realities after our shameful showing against South Africa before the mega competition.

When our team was selected, we flaunted the slogan "hope for the best" and did not "prepare for the worst" which is the essential part of the maxim.

We could not imagine the poor form of Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan thus making no provisions for a fourth specialist batsman. Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi and Rashid Latif could not fill the breach. Thus our lack of vision and planning was exposed.

As I had pointed out before, the cricket board generously provided all the facilities to get a positive result. It arranged and provided the services of a coach, bowling coach, two doctors, a psychologist, an analyst, and a physiotherapist leaving no room for any excuse but neither the team management nor the players could deliver.

Now look at the excellent example of Kenya which qualified for the semifinal sans any infrastructure and bereft of sponsors. It gave tough time to eventual winners and runners up Australia and India.

Now let us carefully examine the root causes of our deplorable performance. First the performance of Waqar Younis, the leader. I had also backed him up as captain never thinking that he will make such elementary mistakes and take outlandish decisions.

When a team embarks on such an important encounter its batting order is decided after examining all the factors beforehand. We could not till the end determine the opening pair nor of one down position which is so vital.

This situation was continuing from last one year. Several openers were tried, so was the No 3 position. First it was Razzaq, then Inzamam and later Youhana. It thought Inzamam was the ideal choice and Youhana was the next best. Every team marks out the best man for this slot. At one time our preference used to be Zaheer Abbas and West Indies opted for its star player Vivian Richards.

The overall pick up criteria betrayed similar bankruptcy. Why was Saqlain Mushtaq dropped against Australia and India? Asking Younis Khan to bowl - who hardly ever does it for his departmental team - was an absurd step.

Saying that a spinner cannot be effective against India is also incomprehensible. Have we forgotten Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed's decisive performance against them in the Bangalore Test 17 years ago where Pakistan owed its memorable victory to the two spinners.

At one time when West Indian and Australian batsmen were considered best against pace attack our Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan did rattle them.

We have experienced a regrettable reverse in the Asian Test Championship in Lahore against Sri Lanka by omitting Saqlain, a mistake again repeated by Waqar. In doing so Waqar perhaps shattered the confidence of almost every player.

As regards the role of Pybus, the coach, whom I had already described an ordinary trainer who has no credentials for the job assigned to him. He was at first engaged as a trainer in 1999 when Mushtaq Mohammad was the coach who took the team into the final.

Mr Zafar Altaf who later headed the board took the right decision to sack Pybus. The reasons for this radical decision were many that Mr Altaf might reveal at an appropriate time.

How then Pybus became coach later on and was retained despite the disastrous collapse of the Pakistan team for paltry 59 and 53 runs against Australia in Sharjah Test. The disastrous tour of South Africa later on was another blow during his tenure.

Ironically he was rewarded for these repeated reversals by being offered enormous remunerations and retained him till the World Cup.

He neither gave team proper training nor a game plan. Only the cricket board can explain this enigmatic action. Neither he nor bowling coach Daryl Foster appeared before the review committee. All the experts had beforehand pointed out that he (Pybus) had no attachment with the team.

Now a few observations about the manager Mr Shaharyar Khan. Many people who did not agree with my assessments before will probably change their views after the uncremonious exit of Pakistan from the World Cup.

A man totally lacking cricketing insight was given such an important responsibility which he eagerly accepted could not have yielded any other outcome when he constituted five committees of players.

This step expressed his woeful mishandling. This silly experiment divided the team in - one set looking after the protocol, one involved in entertainment and one surprisingly headed by Inzamam already struck by a bad patch supposed to be enforcing discipline.

Thus the manager not only shed his responsibility but sowed the seeds of indiscipline. Finally the open fight between Inzamam and Younis Khan made a mockery of the disciplinary committee for which the manager tried to play down a major incident to cover his mishandling is mind-boggling.

Our hands down abject surrender in the field against our arch-rivals was mainly our bowlers' failure to deliver. A noteworthy difference was that we had attacking bowlers and they had seamers.

It is time to revamp and regroup the resources the PCB has in its fold. Team's are not built overnight. It looks the board has made up its mind to get rid of majority of senior players

Instead of ditching all the senior players it will be prudent on part of the PCB think tank to have a blend of senior and juniors in its effort to rebuild a team to take on the best in coming months.

A perfect example for the board to follow is to follow the invincible Australians. The Aussies got rid off the Waugh brothers but did not opt for a wholesale change. Above all the Aussies has the required backup to make changes.

Unfortunately Pakistan do not seem to have readymade replacements for the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis. Saeed Anwar and Inzamam-ul-Haq and that could put the youngsters under tremendous pressure.

I sincerely pray for the success of the new management and the team selected for Sharjah. Yet I still think it would have been prudent for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) not to have overlooked some of the senior players as nobody remembers losers in this success-oriented world.