Trade secrets, and innocuous deliveries

Rahul Dravid wants to have a tete-a-tete with Javed Miandad about batting preparation after the series is over. According to Mid Day, they had a short discussion before the fourth day's play at Lahore. What was it about? "He wanted to know the drills because he watches us practising and was interested," Miandad said. "He also wanted to know what preparations we made as batsmen before matches in our time."

However, Miandad assured, no trade secrets were revealed.

What was revealed by Dilip Vengsarkar, in his column for the same paper, was that that Indian batsmen fell to innocuous deliveries - a criminal offence - considering their formidable reputation. He also commended Umar Gul's matchwinning performance. "Fortunately for them [Pakistan], Gul was now inducted and he justified his inclusion with a matchwinning performance. Gul hits the seam and he could be dangerous on any wicket. He has to just bowl a proper line and length and will be difficult to handle."

While Vengsarkar wrote about sticking to the basics, Shahryar Khan, the PCB's chairman, believed that new coaching methods had to be implemented, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. "He [Miandad] must have new ways to improve the performance of the team. We are still using old methods which are not really effective." Miandad had been vocal in his dislike of technology, citing the example of Richard Pybus, who had earlier coached the Pakistani team without much success. But Shahryar was convinced that specialisation would improve the team's performance. "Gone are the days when one person was managing everything in a team. In today's world specialists are required to work in various fields. This is our objective to attach specialised professionals with the team and we will be taking some decisions soon."

What did this mean? Miandad read between the lines and said he "will see if I want to continue as coach or not after this series is over ... I don't like anyone doubting my commitment."