Pakistan's progress ... and lack of it

Kamran Abbasi

23-Sep-2004

Inzamam-ul-Haq: still defending his decision to bat © Getty Images

In our globalised world we are not divided by international boundaries, but we are separated by language, which leads you to wonder just how Bob Woolmer and Inzamam-ul-Haq manage? At press conferences Woolmer fields the questions in English, followed by Inzamam who tackles the ones in Urdu.

After Pakistan's defeat of India I asked Woolmer why Pakistan were now more focused than a few months earlier against India. Woolmer diplomatically replied that he hadn't been involved with the India series, so was unable to specify what had changed, but was satisfied with the commitment of his team. My attempts to subvert the process by asking Inzamam the same question in Urdu met a rather grumpy response. I was wrong, he suggested, to imply that Pakistan had found it hard to beat India in the home series and his team was as focused as ever.

Inzamam, I've come to learn, is a man who defends his decisions and his behaviour as stoutly as he defends his wicket. This is an admirable trait in a captain - but so is a touch of contrition, and after the incredible decision to bat first at the Rose Bowl perhaps a spoonful of contrition would not have gone amiss.

First, let's be clear, there are certain signs that the team of Bob and Inzy is heading on an upward trajectory. Pakistan's bowlers perform with a dash of discipline, the fielders have a swagger of professionalism, and the batsmen appear to have a plan. These developments are a miracle. But Pakistan cricket, and Bob and Inzy in particular, have much to consider, and the main points are these:

All teams make mistakes, and take silly decisions, but this seems to happen to Pakistan at an alarming rate. With due respect to the acumen of Pakistan's think-tank, batting first on a cloudy morning, before 11am at the end of September in England, on a difficult track, is hard to explain. The explanation that the pitch might have favoured the spinners later on might have made sense if the spinners in question were not Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik, and the fast bowlers were not Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, backed up by two reasonable seamers -- and if the match were being played at Karachi.

Woolmer has done a great job of talking up Inzamam as captain, and certainly he is a better captain and a more responsible batsman now than a year ago, but you still have to worry about him as a tactician. The decision to bat first is one thing, but the subsequent decision not to use Afridi, after claiming that the track would suit spinners, was bordering on the ridiculous. This is not to say that Afridi would have won Pakistan the game, but in a desperate situation a sentient captain would try anything and gamble on success. Inzamam can certainly lead in the middle, bat in hand, yet a question-mark remains over the rest of the time.

A more fundamental problem still is the inability of Pakistan's players to play the moving ball. At home against India they were undone by the gentle swing of Lakshmipathi Balaji and the more extravagant movement of Irfan Pathan. At the Rose Bowl, West Indies' gentle swingers did for Pakistan's top order. Correcting this immense deficiency against the moving ball must be a real worry for Woolmer, and has to be a priority. Top-order batsmen at the highest level should not be surrendering so easily. There is a deeper problem here, one that questions the way Pakistan's cricketers develop in their early years: much talent but little technique.

A final worry is that Woolmer has promised consistency in selection -- and delivered, which is commendable, yet this has been coupled with a surprising rigidity in batting order and approach. Might a little unpredictability help here? Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, or even Shoaib Akhtar thrown up the order for a quick fling is a tactic not to be forgotten.

Pakistan's approach has changed in many ways since Woolmer became coach -- in many ways that inspire confidence for the future -- but one aspect that remains bewildering is the extreme variability in performance. Unless Woolmer finds a solution for this unpredictability his time with Pakistan will remain bitter-sweet.

Kamran Abbasi is a London-based cricket writer and acting editor of the British Medical Journal.

Bob Woolmer Inzamam-ul-Haq