Woolmer hits out at criticism

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has hit out against the stream of criticism directed at the team after their humiliating defeat against Australia at Perth. Pakistan were thrashed by 491 runs and were then subjected to a fearful backlash, as the media, fans and former players vented their ire - effigies of players were burnt, while a crowd of around 150 apparently smashed a television set.

Among former players, Javed Miandad, the previous coach of the side, has been most vocal in his criticism, but Woolmer said that such comments helped no-one. "It's the criticism before the match and the criticism continually of everything that undermines the players and everyone around the team," he said, according to a report in ABC Sport. "I don't see the point of it, quite frankly - what are people trying to achieve?

"For example, the burning of the effigies... are you trying to burn the people who are doing their job, instead of encouraging them? It's obviously something I will have to get used to - I don't want to get used to it, so we'll have to perform better. It's a strange world we live in when people criticise you for not doing things you're already doing, because they don't know - they're six or seven thousand miles away."

In the aftermath of the defeat, Woolmer spoke to a number of experts, and while some - most notably Bob Simpson - offered to help, Woolmer said that the team was keen get out of the rut by themselves.

"Part of the team meeting we had (after Perth), we discussed the role of a sports psychologist," Woolmer said. "The team was adamant that they were very disappointed about what happened and they would like to handle it themselves. It doesn't mean I can't talk to these people and see if there's anything new on the market that might help the team. Inzamam specifically was adamant that it's not outside help we need, we need to help ourselves and that was the most important thing I think that came out of the meeting."