“Anything that the Akmals say, I don’t listen to at all” : Mickey Arthur

[MenInG]

Mickey Arthur in an interview:


Kamran Akmal said recently that he held you responsible for the mess that Pakistan cricket is in...

Just look at what happened to Kamran Akmal. Kamran Akmal is a comfort zone player. He couldn't field. Sarfraz Ahmed was captain. He wasn't going to be the wicketkeeper. We took him on a West Indies tour and he was average at best. Kamran Akmal failed two fitness tests. So to be honest, anything that the Akmals say, I don't listen to at all. Anything they say, I just take with a pinch of salt.


How was your time in Pakistan then?

I loved my time in Pakistan. Sometimes, I sit back and look at my career and think...South Africa was great. I've always said, you've never coached until you've coached in the subcontinent and the subcontinent really appeals to me for a number of reasons. I find the players to be extremely respectful. I find the players want structure because a lot of times they haven't grown up with it. I find the values of players in terms of family so refreshing and good. It's a wonderful and emotional place.

Pakistan was an emotional place to coach. You are either a king or the villain; there's nothing in between depending on the result. But the thing I always kept saying to the players was that you're only one win away from being a hero again. I loved it and I loved Pakistan; I made some very good friends there. For a foreign coach to last three years in Pakistan... you've done a decent job. I just look back at the young players that have come through the system. They're wonderful players that are going to serve Pakistan for a long time and I look back at that with a lot of pride. It was volatile, exciting, loud, colourful - it touched all my senses and it was a wonderful three years. I learnt a lot from it.


Was it a deliberate plan to leave out certain older players to create a young team? Sohail Tanvir pointed out that he was left out because of your vision of having a young team...

100% - that's the art of coaching. The art of coaching is to have a vision. To try and create a brand of cricket that you want to play and then you build the team around that. I tried to create a structure always where players are challenged. They are challenged every day because we only want them to be the best. I make no bones in saying that I don't accept mediocrity. Mediocrity is a swear word in my vocabulary. Because I give and work 12 hours a day, I expect the players, every time they come to the training ground, to bring their best, to bring the intensity of a match-day. That's my expectation and players know that because only then do they grow and get better. Once players buy into that and they see development and see them getting better, then your system just grows and it's a good place to be.


Was that a tough call to make?

You can't be scared as a head coach coming into an organisation of making tough calls. If you're scared of making tough calls... you know, one thing I've found especially in the subcontinent, and as a head coach anywhere, is that it's going to end. And it very rarely doesn't end in tears. So when it ends, make sure you have no regrets. Make sure you've done it your way and the way that you think is best for that organisation. My one mantra in any decision I make: is it the best decision for Sri Lankan cricket or Pakistan cricket or wherever I am? And if it is, you've got to make it irrespective of how hard it is.

https://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-ne...-system-the-system-becomes-extremely-powerful

 

[Rana]

lol they are Babar Azam’s first cousins can you believe

 

[King_Kohli]

Too harsh on Akmal.

 

[Saj]

There were a few players that Mickey had very little time for - the Akmals, Ahmed Shehzad and he put up with Hafeez to a certain extent.

I think he hated some of the media more though.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Akmals should learn to shut up and enjoy their respective retirements. They have made enough money for a comfortable life.

They don't make sense anyways.

 

[90MPH]

It was so sad to see Micky Arthur go.

It was a pathetic disgusting decision by the PCB.

 

[Zaz]

Hes right about the akmals They should just be ignored Players like them who rant in the media rather than workinf hard to inprove themselves on the pitch dont deserve anytime

Arthur was a ray of light for pakistan He should still be the coach today

 

[Nasty Naz]

“Anything that the Akmals say, I don’t listen to at all”

Pretty sure that should be a rule of life.

It truly is amazing how old players cry about being dumped for younger and better players. If you are good, you will still play but if you are old and bad like Akmal, Tanvir etc... what is the use of playing you whatsoever? It happened to Wahab too where he looked so bad and got the life beat out of him on that England tour back in 2016 but he's still put the work in domestic and made his way back to the International side despite his age.

 

[RickyG]

There were a few players that Mickey had very little time for - the Akimals, Ahmed Shehzad and he put up with Hafeez to a certain extent.

I think he hated some of the media more though.

Why Hafeez? Was it the fact he's an oldie that Arthur wanted to phase out?

Or did Hafeez try to use his influence on the team?

Did Arthur at the world cup lose support of players like Imam, Malik, Hafeez, Wahab etc? Basically players who have a lot of influence. There were a lot of reports about rifts.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

He’s right about building a team with a certain brand of cricket. This is where Misbah has failed. And I don’t blame Misbah either, he’s never coached or selected before therefore he should never have been appointed to those positions.

Oh wait, he appointed himself didn’t he?

 

[shamaan]

He’s right about building a team with a certain brand of cricket. This is where Misbah has failed. And I don’t blame Misbah either, he’s never coached or selected before therefore he should never have been appointed to those positions.

Oh wait, he appointed himself didn’t he?

Misbah doesnt know much about coaching style or philosophy

 

[TeamPak95]

Mickey would've loved to work with Babar the captain along with Haider Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Shadab, Imam, Hasnain, Naseem, Shaheen. There were strategic flaws during his tenure, such as not inducting a proper spinner in the UAE tests against SL & NZ, but I'd very much rather Mickey Arthur then Misbah-ul-haq as coach.

 

[topspin]

Someone needs to remind the Akmals about how instrumental Mickey Arthur was to their cousin’s development.

 

[Gullycricket]

That's why I always say under Mickey it looked like we had plans, we were building towards something. I certainly believe by 2023 WC under him we would be in top 3 of world cricket. He knew the problems with our cricket and it's not like he didn't give chances to Akmals, Shehzad. But he learnt quick that they are useless. He introduced Fakhar in the middle of Champions trophy which a coward like Misbah will never do.
Just like Dhoni revolutionised Indian cricket with introduction of youngsters ,same way Mickey was trying. He gave South Africa a base which lasted many years. Look today Imad, Babar many credit him for their success. He also was huge believer in Amir unlike bitter Waqar and Misbah. Most of the youngsters playing today were introduced by him. I do agree he had his faults but that's expected since no one is perfect. Just like Dhoni his vision and process was perfect and results would show up after some time. Thank you Mickey . Hope you are brought back

 

[waleed88]

No truer words have been spoken 'Kamran Akmal is a comfort zone player.' I couldn't agree more.

 

[Hadi Rizvi]

He’s right about building a team with a certain brand of cricket. This is where Misbah has failed. And I don’t blame Misbah either, he’s never coached or selected before therefore he should never have been appointed to those positions.

Oh wait, he appointed himself didn’t he?

Mickey is so on point in every interview. It's hard not to agree with him. Whether he's talking abt building a young team, fitness, vision, seniority culture etc, you always end up feeling he's right about it and has applied it in his coaching style. We wouldn't have Imad, Shadab, Babar, Fakhar etc in the team if not for his backing and trust in them for the big games.

His best gift to PAK Cricket though is a fitness culture and intense focus on fielding. Really miss him.

 

[HappyWarsFan]

Mickey is so on point in every interview. It's hard not to agree with him. Whether he's talking abt building a young team, fitness, vision, seniority culture etc, you always end up feeling he's right about it and has applied it in his coaching style. We wouldn't have Imad, Shadab, Babar, Fakhar etc in the team if not for his backing and trust in them for the big games.

His best gift to PAK Cricket though is a fitness culture and intense focus on fielding. Really miss him.

Not that Misbah is good. But mickey arthur had no clue about test cricket especially in Asia and had no idea about spinners or domestic performers. All he knew was PSL. He was not a good coach.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

Babar Azam was Mickey’s find. He then trained and groomed him.
Shoaib Akhtar and Rashid Lateef are all on the record admitting that we all had dismissed Baber for having any international Quality.

If Mickey had been given an absolute full autonomy, our cricket team would've been at a different level.

I am sure he would’ve gotten rid of Misbah as well.

Perhaps Mickey was the right guy to take on the dual role.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

Mickey is so on point in every interview. It's hard not to agree with him. Whether he's talking abt building a young team, fitness, vision, seniority culture etc, you always end up feeling he's right about it and has applied it in his coaching style. We wouldn't have Imad, Shadab, Babar, Fakhar etc in the team if not for his backing and trust in them for the big games.

His best gift to PAK Cricket though is a fitness culture and intense focus on fielding. Really miss him.

I have to agree, Imam, Babar, Fakhar, Shadab are some of the best fielders we’ve ever had.

Though Inzi gets some credit for selection.

Overall I feel my ratings are something like this:

Head Coach:
Mickey: 7/10
Misbah: 5/10

Selector:
Inzi: 7/10
Misbah: 3/10

I feel Mohammad Wasim could potentially be an 8/10 coach and Mohammad Akram an 8/10 selector.

 

[Hitman]

I haven't seen a worse cricketer than Kamran Akmal in my 24 years as a cricket fan. The guy has the nerve to point fingers at others.

 

[Caved12]

I haven't seen a worse cricketer than Kamran Akmal in my 24 years as a cricket fan. The guy has the nerve to point fingers at others.

so true bro, only in Pakistan.

 

[Mamoon]

Mickey always talked well, and this is one of the reasons why Pakistani fans out of touch with reality (which basically 99.9% of the fans) liked him so much.

The reality is that by the end of his tenure, Mickey had no control on the results of his team and was simply waiting to be sacked.

He states that he does not accept mediocrity but that is what he did in his last months as Pakistan coach.

His demise started with the 2018 Asia Cup. That eye-opening humiliation shook the core of Pakistan cricket and disproved everything that we had to started to believe following the Champions Trophy win and the relentless minnow-bashing from October 2017 to August 2018.

Our players and the fans’ heads were in the clouds before we received a brutal reality check at the hands of a Kohli-less India and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in September 2018.

That humiliation kickstarted a period where Pakistan lost 21 ODIs in 25 matches including a 12 match consecutive losing streak.

Right before the World Cup, we had the best possible preparation when we got to play a 5 match ODI series vs England in England - a luxury that a pathetic team like ours did not deserve, and we followed it up by a remarkable capitulation against West Indies in our World Cup opener which nuked our NRR.

We limped and hobbled our way to a 5th place finish among 10 teams and with a negative NRR (third worst in the World Cup).

In Test cricket, he lost two Test series in the UAE and allowed a weak Australian lineup with Smith to draw a Test all because of his refusal to play two specialist spinners.

He knew he had goofed up against Sri Lanka in 2017 when we got whitewashed with 3 pacers + Yasir, but he refused to correct his mistake because he wanted to prove a point. This led to another home defeat when New Zealand beat us a year later.

Those who think that Mickey would have made Pakistan a top 3 side by the 2023 World Cup are the same delusional fans who are out of touch with reality that I mentioned earlier.

This is one aspect where I admire Misbah these days. He is, so far, not mincing his words and not selling dummies in pressers to feed the egos of our delusional fans by making sweet statements.

Misbah explicitly stated that it is very difficult for Pakistan to beat the top teams and he spoke the truth. However, his statement obviously did not go down well with the fans.

Pakistani fans need to accept the fact that Pakistan cricket is the poster boy of mediocrity, and bringing in young players will not change that. This mediocrity is deeply embedded within our cricket culture and the senior players alone are not responsible for it.

A year ago, everyone wanted Hafeez to retire. Today, no young batsman apart from Babar has the ability to outperform this 40 year old Hafeez.

99% of these young players that are coming through are mediocre as well, but fans see them becoming great players in the future because they are desperate and give themselves false hopes.

Everything about Pakistan cricket is mediocre. The vast majority of the players, the brand of cricket that we play, the body language of the players and their communication skills, the media analysts, the fans, the stadiums, the match day production etc. if you could use one word that perfectly encapsulates Pakistan cricket, the word you are looking for is mediocrity.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Mickey always talked well, and this is one of the reasons why Pakistani fans out of touch with reality (which basically 99.9% of the fans) liked him so much.

The reality is that by the end of his tenure, Mickey had no control on the results of his team and was simply waiting to be sacked.

He states that he does not accept mediocrity but that is what he did in his last months as Pakistan coach.

His demise started with the 2018 Asia Cup. That eye-opening humiliation shook the core of Pakistan cricket and disproved everything that we had to started to believe following the Champions Trophy win and the relentless minnow-bashing from October 2017 to August 2018.

Our players and the fans’ heads were in the clouds before we received a brutal reality check at the hands of a Kohli-less India and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in September 2018.

That humiliation kickstarted a period where Pakistan lost 21 ODIs in 25 matches including a 12 match consecutive losing streak.

Right before the World Cup, we had the best possible preparation when we got to play a 5 match ODI series vs England in England - a luxury that a pathetic team like ours did not deserve, and we followed it up by a remarkable capitulation against West Indies in our World Cup opener which nuked our NRR.

We limped and hobbled our way to a 5th place finish among 10 teams and with a negative NRR (third worst in the World Cup).

In Test cricket, he lost two Test series in the UAE and allowed a weak Australian lineup with Smith to draw a Test all because of his refusal to play two specialist spinners.

He knew he had goofed up against Sri Lanka in 2017 when we got whitewashed with 3 pacers + Yasir, but he refused to correct his mistake because he wanted to prove a point. This led to another home defeat when New Zealand beat us a year later.

Those who think that Mickey would have made Pakistan a top 3 side by the 2023 World Cup are the same delusional fans who are out of touch with reality that I mentioned earlier.

This is one aspect where I admire Misbah these days. He is, so far, not mincing his words and not selling dummies in pressers to feed the egos of our delusional fans by making sweet statements.

Misbah explicitly stated that it is very difficult for Pakistan to beat the top teams and he spoke the truth. However, his statement obviously did not go down well with the fans.

Pakistani fans need to accept the fact that Pakistan cricket is the poster boy of mediocrity, and bringing in young players will not change that. This mediocrity is deeply embedded within our cricket culture and the senior players alone are not responsible for it.

A year ago, everyone wanted Hafeez to retire. Today, no young batsman apart from Babar has the ability to outperform this 40 year old Hafeez.

99% of these young players that are coming through are mediocre as well, but fans see them becoming great players in the future because they are desperate and give themselves false hopes.

Everything about Pakistan cricket is mediocre. The vast majority of the players, the brand of cricket that we play, the body language of the players and their communication skills, the media analysts, the fans, the stadiums, the match day production etc. if you could use one word that perfectly encapsulates Pakistan cricket, the word you are looking for is mediocrity.

Damn you really laid into Mickey.

You aren't wrong.

Akmals are idiots but Mickey made a lot of mistakes.

But he did back Babar in tests (yes, he was earmarked by PCB and was probably the only Pak bat that was groomed) and that's the one big service he did for PCB.

 

[Gullycricket]

Mickey always talked well, and this is one of the reasons why Pakistani fans out of touch with reality (which basically 99.9% of the fans) liked him so much.

The reality is that by the end of his tenure, Mickey had no control on the results of his team and was simply waiting to be sacked.

He states that he does not accept mediocrity but that is what he did in his last months as Pakistan coach.

His demise started with the 2018 Asia Cup. That eye-opening humiliation shook the core of Pakistan cricket and disproved everything that we had to started to believe following the Champions Trophy win and the relentless minnow-bashing from October 2017 to August 2018.

Our players and the fans’ heads were in the clouds before we received a brutal reality check at the hands of a Kohli-less India and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in September 2018.

That humiliation kickstarted a period where Pakistan lost 21 ODIs in 25 matches including a 12 match consecutive losing streak.

Right before the World Cup, we had the best possible preparation when we got to play a 5 match ODI series vs England in England - a luxury that a pathetic team like ours did not deserve, and we followed it up by a remarkable capitulation against West Indies in our World Cup opener which nuked our NRR.

We limped and hobbled our way to a 5th place finish among 10 teams and with a negative NRR (third worst in the World Cup).

In Test cricket, he lost two Test series in the UAE and allowed a weak Australian lineup with Smith to draw a Test all because of his refusal to play two specialist spinners.

He knew he had goofed up against Sri Lanka in 2017 when we got whitewashed with 3 pacers + Yasir, but he refused to correct his mistake because he wanted to prove a point. This led to another home defeat when New Zealand beat us a year later.

Those who think that Mickey would have made Pakistan a top 3 side by the 2023 World Cup are the same delusional fans who are out of touch with reality that I mentioned earlier.

This is one aspect where I admire Misbah these days. He is, so far, not mincing his words and not selling dummies in pressers to feed the egos of our delusional fans by making sweet statements.

Misbah explicitly stated that it is very difficult for Pakistan to beat the top teams and he spoke the truth. However, his statement obviously did not go down well with the fans.

Pakistani fans need to accept the fact that Pakistan cricket is the poster boy of mediocrity, and bringing in young players will not change that. This mediocrity is deeply embedded within our cricket culture and the senior players alone are not responsible for it.

A year ago, everyone wanted Hafeez to retire. Today, no young batsman apart from Babar has the ability to outperform this 40 year old Hafeez.

99% of these young players that are coming through are mediocre as well, but fans see them becoming great players in the future because they are desperate and give themselves false hopes.

Everything about Pakistan cricket is mediocre. The vast majority of the players, the brand of cricket that we play, the body language of the players and their communication skills, the media analysts, the fans, the stadiums, the match day production etc. if you could use one word that perfectly encapsulates Pakistan cricket, the word you are looking for is mediocrity.

See this is where you don't understand what goes into developing a team with meagre resources. You will suffer losses but you keep building towards that vision. As Dhoni many times said the process is important not the results. The results would follow itself. His patience with Bobby, Shaheen,Imad,Imam is showing now and I have no doubt some other players would also emerge under his wing. That's development.
Look I will counter your argument but comparing our approach now under Misbah or before Mickey under Waqar. So under Waqar we had no consistency in team selections. Players didn't have defined roles and his arrogance cost us games. We played unfit Nasir Jamshed in 2015 WC and brought Younis Khan who hadn't been part of setup for long to open against India. In Asia cup 2016 we played pathetic Khurram and Akmal despite repeated failures. Look at our 2013 CT team . Does that appear to you with that team we had some vision?
Fast forward to today we see Misbah repeatedly playing failed seniors not because he is a realist but because he looks for short term results. Again there is no vision or plan for big tournaments. I will not detail the contradictions in Misbah tenure so far as they have been discussed a lot on this forum.
Now why I loved Mickey. Firstly he is a highly successful coach. He was instrumental in SA success and gave them many legends. Secondly as soon as he came he put in a plan. Fitness became important. Fielding standards improved. An inconsistent pakistan became more consistent. From languishing at No 9 in Odi rankings to No 5 , the improvements were visible. You only focus only the results. I don't. I saw how in England in all 5 games we were scoring above 300. In SA we were again competitive. Yes we didn't turn world beaters all of a sudden but the right signs were there.
Becoming top 3 in world cricket wouldn't have been so difficult under him. NZ we could do well against while as we could win against Aussies and Eng at home also.
You can say anything you want but that CT win hurts for you. Even the WC barring that WI game we did well. You can't bring whole some changes in a day in subcontinent. But he was phasing out our pathetic habits. You win some you lose some but the process he setup is succeeding.Misbah was against Shaheen all along in WC as I saw in cricinfo talk shows but finally had to admit. That's the tunnel vision of Misbah and Waqar.

 

[Abdullah Rabbani]

Mickey always talked well, and this is one of the reasons why Pakistani fans out of touch with reality (which basically 99.9% of the fans) liked him so much.

The reality is that by the end of his tenure, Mickey had no control on the results of his team and was simply waiting to be sacked.

He states that he does not accept mediocrity but that is what he did in his last months as Pakistan coach.

His demise started with the 2018 Asia Cup. That eye-opening humiliation shook the core of Pakistan cricket and disproved everything that we had to started to believe following the Champions Trophy win and the relentless minnow-bashing from October 2017 to August 2018.

Our players and the fans’ heads were in the clouds before we received a brutal reality check at the hands of a Kohli-less India and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in September 2018.

That humiliation kickstarted a period where Pakistan lost 21 ODIs in 25 matches including a 12 match consecutive losing streak.

Right before the World Cup, we had the best possible preparation when we got to play a 5 match ODI series vs England in England - a luxury that a pathetic team like ours did not deserve, and we followed it up by a remarkable capitulation against West Indies in our World Cup opener which nuked our NRR.

We limped and hobbled our way to a 5th place finish among 10 teams and with a negative NRR (third worst in the World Cup).

In Test cricket, he lost two Test series in the UAE and allowed a weak Australian lineup with Smith to draw a Test all because of his refusal to play two specialist spinners.

He knew he had goofed up against Sri Lanka in 2017 when we got whitewashed with 3 pacers + Yasir, but he refused to correct his mistake because he wanted to prove a point. This led to another home defeat when New Zealand beat us a year later.

Those who think that Mickey would have made Pakistan a top 3 side by the 2023 World Cup are the same delusional fans who are out of touch with reality that I mentioned earlier.

This is one aspect where I admire Misbah these days. He is, so far, not mincing his words and not selling dummies in pressers to feed the egos of our delusional fans by making sweet statements.

Misbah explicitly stated that it is very difficult for Pakistan to beat the top teams and he spoke the truth. However, his statement obviously did not go down well with the fans.

Pakistani fans need to accept the fact that Pakistan cricket is the poster boy of mediocrity, and bringing in young players will not change that. This mediocrity is deeply embedded within our cricket culture and the senior players alone are not responsible for it.

A year ago, everyone wanted Hafeez to retire. Today, no young batsman apart from Babar has the ability to outperform this 40 year old Hafeez.

99% of these young players that are coming through are mediocre as well, but fans see them becoming great players in the future because they are desperate and give themselves false hopes.

Everything about Pakistan cricket is mediocre. The vast majority of the players, the brand of cricket that we play, the body language of the players and their communication skills, the media analysts, the fans, the stadiums, the match day production etc. if you could use one word that perfectly encapsulates Pakistan cricket, the word you are looking for is mediocrity.

Well said but both misbah and mickey are poor coaches

 

[Slim]

There is a whole diatribe written above by a dear friend of mine where he is supposedly "laying into Mickey" but i completely disagree. The level of standards in Pakistan cricket went above in terms of selection, fitness, fielding under Mickey - Fat but capable Fielding Coach (forgot his name) - Inzi.

We had for the first time, a proper strategy in place to have a younger team and this enabled to uncover many young talented players such as Babar, SSA and to the lower extent capable replacements like Imam, Fakhar.

The team after the dark age of Misbah/Waqar was able to regularly cross 300 mark and cricket was fun under Mickey regime. Even though, we lost matches before the ODI WC, but we all knew that it was building onto something. We played our B team before the ODI WC, where we lost matches, lets not forget as well.

We marginally got out of the WC after beating the eventual champions, and finalist. Mickey and Inzi was a God's gift for Pakistan cricket. With all their flaws, they were the best thing that happened to Pakistan Cricket. Sethi administration shall be remembered for taking excellent decisions in terms of hiring management and organising PSL.

 

[Markhor]

See this is where you don't understand what goes into developing a team with meagre resources. You will suffer losses but you keep building towards that vision. As Dhoni many times said the process is important not the results. The results would follow itself. His patience with Bobby, Shaheen,Imad,Imam is showing now and I have no doubt some other players would also emerge under his wing. That's development.
Look I will counter your argument but comparing our approach now under Misbah or before Mickey under Waqar. So under Waqar we had no consistency in team selections. Players didn't have defined roles and his arrogance cost us games. We played unfit Nasir Jamshed in 2015 WC and brought Younis Khan who hadn't been part of setup for long to open against India. In Asia cup 2016 we played pathetic Khurram and Akmal despite repeated failures. Look at our 2013 CT team . Does that appear to you with that team we had some vision?
Fast forward to today we see Misbah repeatedly playing failed seniors not because he is a realist but because he looks for short term results. Again there is no vision or plan for big tournaments. I will not detail the contradictions in Misbah tenure so far as they have been discussed a lot on this forum.
Now why I loved Mickey. Firstly he is a highly successful coach. He was instrumental in SA success and gave them many legends. Secondly as soon as he came he put in a plan. Fitness became important. Fielding standards improved. An inconsistent pakistan became more consistent. From languishing at No 9 in Odi rankings to No 5 , the improvements were visible. You only focus only the results. I don't. I saw how in England in all 5 games we were scoring above 300. In SA we were again competitive. Yes we didn't turn world beaters all of a sudden but the right signs were there.
Becoming top 3 in world cricket wouldn't have been so difficult under him. NZ we could do well against while as we could win against Aussies and Eng at home also.
You can say anything you want but that CT win hurts for you. Even the WC barring that WI game we did well. You can't bring whole some changes in a day in subcontinent. But he was phasing out our pathetic habits. You win some you lose some but the process he setup is succeeding.Misbah was against Shaheen all along in WC as I saw in cricinfo talk shows but finally had to admit. That's the tunnel vision of Misbah and Waqar.

Well said, Mickey on paper may possess poor Test and ODI records but that's because he inherited an ageing Test side and an woefully outdated white ball unit by Misbah and Waqar who developed very few youngsters.

Mickey in ODIs inherited a team tottering in 9th and struggling to qualify for the World Cup. We ended up 5th in WC only missing out on SF qualification via NRR. He won Pakistan an ICC 50 over trophy for first time since 1992 against all odds.

His ODI W/L ratio vs the other top nine teams is double that of Waqar's. The number of 300+ scores vs the other top nine teams increased from 2 under Waqar to 14 under Mickey so we were finally batting according to modern era requirements !

I don't even need to compare the T20 records. 30 out of 37 T20 victories and a #1 ranking - a legacy destroyed by Misbah the chop and change king.

The Test record was disappointing in UAE but any coach would've struggled in the immediate aftermath of Younis and Misbah's retirement. Not playing this or that spinner had nothing do with it either. It's all down to the senior trio of Sarfraz Ahmed, Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq BOTTLING two close chases in Abu Dhabi. Where was their precious experience when we needed them to take responsibility ? Even golden boy Babar went missing in those two Tests.

So some facts do help.

 

[Slog]

Mickey Arthur was a Grade A charlatan and showed a worrying lack of ability to rectify glaring mistakes in selection. He made so many mistakes in test cricket that it’s not even funny. His only positive legacy asides from axing the Akmals and Shehzad is bringing several youngsters into the set up and giving them a chance. Obviously he was lucky that PSL came on around the same time so several youngsters came on to the scene and were identified.

Btw. If I was a Sri Lankan fan I would be really ******. Every other Mickey Arthur interview is about Pakistan cricket. It seems he really doesn’t care much about development of Sri Lankan cricket.

Then again sincerity to the job was never Mickey Arthur’s forte. Would take up every random gig whether it’s broadcasting or PSL coaching to supplement his income despite the bloated Pakistan contract. Any opportunity for a quick buck; Mickey Arthur will be there.

 

[Saj]

Why Hafeez? Was it the fact he's an oldie that Arthur wanted to phase out?

Or did Hafeez try to use his influence on the team?

Did Arthur at the world cup lose support of players like Imam, Malik, Hafeez, Wahab etc? Basically players who have a lot of influence. There were a lot of reports about rifts.

Talked too much, tried to influence the younger players too much. Wanted to impose his ideas on everyone, every day.

 

[Rana]

Mickey Arthur was a Grade A charlatan and showed a worrying lack of ability to rectify glaring mistakes in selection. He made so many mistakes in test cricket that it’s not even funny. His only positive legacy asides from axing the Akmals and Shehzad is bringing several youngsters into the set up and giving them a chance. Obviously he was lucky that PSL came on around the same time so several youngsters came on to the scene and were identified.

Btw. If I was a Sri Lankan fan I would be really ******. Every other Mickey Arthur interview is about Pakistan cricket. It seems he really doesn’t care much about development of Sri Lankan cricket.

Then again sincerity to the job was never Mickey Arthur’s forte. Would take up every random gig whether it’s broadcasting or PSL coaching to supplement his income despite the bloated Pakistan contract. Any opportunity for a quick buck; Mickey Arthur will be there.

I have a feeling that the pay package at Sri Lanka isn’t as rewarding as the one he had at Pakistan. The only reason why a man would still be obsessed about a job from the past.

 

[Hasan123]

Lol Mickey is clearly no fans of the Akmals.

He wasnt perfect but he wore his heart on his sleeve. I do believe he had a part in Babar development. I think he could improve young players if he had time with them. Not picking specialist spinners was a massive issue and he did overhype some players. But I liked him as a coach. If we were not going to hire Misbah, it would have been better to keep Mickey till at least the World T20. Misbah lacks experience and is not showing much in terms of coaching ability.

If your sacking a pro coach like Arthur, you don't go for a misfit like Misbah.

 

[Saj]

Junaid Khan was another who Mickey didn't like very much.

Felt he was a bit lazy and not willing to work on his weaknesses such as fielding and batting.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Junaid Khan was another who Mickey didn't like very much.

Felt he was a bit lazy and not willing to work on his weaknesses such as fielding and batting.

even though he was the unsung hero of the CT17. On the other hand, Fahim, Amir got a free ride without much performance. Amir apart from CT final was pretty mediocre.
I have a feeling that Inzi vouched for Junaid and kept selecting him. Mickey on the other hand, did not want him. All the matches he got to play were due to poor performance of the "first options"

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Mickey was a mixed bag.
He had certain very good aspects and some very stubborn ideals.

I remember Pakistan approached him to coach Pakistan back in 2007 and 2012 as well but he turned down both times. He was seen as an elite coach during that time. But after falling out with Australian cricket, his reputation took a bit hit and good offers became hard to come by. So he had to coach an international team. Otherwise I don't believe he was remotely interested in coaching Pak. He even stirred a few pots back in 2007 by hinting that Pakistan probably lost the final ODI intentionally.

If it wasn't for homeworkgate fiasco, he wouldn't have become Pak's coach.

His good aspects were his discipline, knowledge and ability to drive a team. He clearly had the chops and knowledge required from a coach unlike majority of the former players who believe coaching is just about telling players to believe in themselves and everything will turn out okay.
He did have vision for the team, whether it was good or bad, is debatable. He did have some favorites in the team as well. Babar, Shadab, Fahim, Imad, Hassan Ali to name a few.
He did improve our batting and quite possibly dragged it to the modern age around the end of his tenure. Pakistan in SA, England, and Wc started to notch up higher scores regularly which was a rarity before. Compare 2016 England ODIs and 2019's.
Now it depends whether that ODI team he made can maintain those good traits he inserted or would it go downhill.

His bad aspects were something he hated or didn't like, he wouldn't even try to reason against it. He just wouldn't try to believe what he doesn't like may indeed be a good thing.
Playing Wahab in CT17 opener was his silliest mistake. In addition, going in with a single spinner in 2017 UAE tests against SL.

But he does have influence, I don't believe if it wasn't for Mickey, Steve Rixon would have come to coach our team and improve our fielding 3 or 4 times. You can clearly see the difference in the fielding standard since he left.

He was definitely a superior coach to Waqar Younis, Intikhab Alam, Dav Whatmore, Moin Khan, Mohsin Khan and Geoff Lawson. Lawson I believe wasn't given much time and he didn't fully set himself in the team and the environment.

The signs of Misbah being a good coach are not looking good. I hope he proves me wrong. Although I like his selections and think PPers make a lot of fuss about his decisions as a selector. You simply can't satisfy everyone in selection. Like Australians say, being a selector is a thankless job. Misbah is strategically a good one but his vision and constituting a team is pretty off balanced since always.

 

[zacattakk]

Haha great response about the Akmals. He summed Kakmal up perfectly in a few sentences.

Mickey wasn't perfect, he made multiple mistakes, as did Inzi the chief selector. But the Mickey/Inzi combo was superior to many previous coaches and chief selectors we had gone through, and definitely better than the Misbah/Waqar/Misbah combo. I hope the current duo gets their act together and we start winning against better teams. Ironically, Misbah's final squad may have been his best.

 

[Hitman]

so true bro, only in Pakistan.

His wicket keeping alone is horrible enough to render him one of the worst cricketers of all time. Add to that his entitled attitude, he acts as if Pak cricket owes him a lot.

 

[Zaz]

His wicket keeping alone is horrible enough to render him one of the worst cricketers of all time. Add to that his entitled attitude, he acts as if Pak cricket owes him a lot.

He played twice as many tests and odis as he should have

Pakistan always wished he would stop eventually stop dropping catches and show the batting form of circa 2004-5 when he was hitting centuries

It was the definition of insanity They kept him in the team and he carried on the same way with his pathetic performances for years

 

[Deewana Mastana]

He played twice as many tests and odis as he should have

Pakistan always wished he would stop eventually stop dropping catches and show the batting form of circa 2004-5 when he was hitting centuries

It was the definition of insanity They kept him in the team and he carried on the same way with his pathetic performances for years

It is because he knew there was no successor to the throne while he was at the helm - Either performing or not was secondary as he never had the competition like Rashid and Moin who were the ones battling it out in the 90's.

 

[Firebat]

You can't be scared as a head coach coming into an organisation of making tough calls. If you're scared of making tough calls... you know, one thing I've found especially in the subcontinent, and as a head coach anywhere, is that it's going to end. And it very rarely doesn't end in tears. So when it ends, make sure you have no regrets. Make sure you've done it your way and the way that you think is best for that organisation.

I respect Mickey a lot for this attitude, you can never be successful being scared of angering people or making half-hearted decisions. Always do it your way, and whether it works or not, at least you won't have regrets. This is why I viewed his stubbornness as a strength for the most part.

Hard to have any sympathies for the Akmals anyway. Nobody to blame but themselves. Should've followed their younger cousin's example.

 

[Saj]

Mohammad Irfan was another who Mickey was less than impressed with.

Awful fitness levels and always an injury waiting to happen.

 

[ads101]

He had to go. We were a declining side since CT 2017. Loss after loss in nearly every ODI and Test series. We couldn't even win tests at home. Coaches have to take accountability. Was exactly the same when Misbah was ODI captain, he should have been replaced for better or worse, instead of just accepting defeat constantly.

Misbah shouldn't have been given the job. But it was the right time to move on from Mickey. He's unprofessional in the media still remember his Riaz comments and suicide comments. Far too emotional. Poor win-loss record. And players were generally declining over time. Disconnection from domestic cricket (not his fault but a problem). And of course unexplainable team selection decisions, he even got basic stuff wrong like not playing 2 spinners in Asia, playing Faheem, persisting with Malik.

It's just upsetting it had to be Misbah who replaced him. Anyone with decent coaching experience would have done, yet we went with the guy with none.

 

[Caved12]

His wicket keeping alone is horrible enough to render him one of the worst cricketers of all time. Add to that his entitled attitude, he acts as if Pak cricket owes him a lot.

All senior players in Pakistan act like Akmals, but this will change by year 2122. As you must notice that Pak cricket players are slowly maturing and finally are on the road to become true professionals of this great game of cricket

 

[zacattakk]

Mohammad Irfan was another who Mickey was less than impressed with.

Awful fitness levels and always an injury waiting to happen.

Another player that Mickey was spot on about. It shows how little cricket sense Misbah has when he selected him out of the blue again for the Australia tour.

 

[Saj]

Here's another one that Mickey didn't have a lot of time for was Sami Aslam - didn't feel he worked hard enough.

 

[ManFan]

Mickey always talked well, and this is one of the reasons why Pakistani fans out of touch with reality (which basically 99.9% of the fans) liked him so much.

The reality is that by the end of his tenure, Mickey had no control on the results of his team and was simply waiting to be sacked.

He states that he does not accept mediocrity but that is what he did in his last months as Pakistan coach.

His demise started with the 2018 Asia Cup. That eye-opening humiliation shook the core of Pakistan cricket and disproved everything that we had to started to believe following the Champions Trophy win and the relentless minnow-bashing from October 2017 to August 2018.

Our players and the fans’ heads were in the clouds before we received a brutal reality check at the hands of a Kohli-less India and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in September 2018.

That humiliation kickstarted a period where Pakistan lost 21 ODIs in 25 matches including a 12 match consecutive losing streak.

Right before the World Cup, we had the best possible preparation when we got to play a 5 match ODI series vs England in England - a luxury that a pathetic team like ours did not deserve, and we followed it up by a remarkable capitulation against West Indies in our World Cup opener which nuked our NRR.

We limped and hobbled our way to a 5th place finish among 10 teams and with a negative NRR (third worst in the World Cup).

In Test cricket, he lost two Test series in the UAE and allowed a weak Australian lineup with Smith to draw a Test all because of his refusal to play two specialist spinners.

He knew he had goofed up against Sri Lanka in 2017 when we got whitewashed with 3 pacers + Yasir, but he refused to correct his mistake because he wanted to prove a point. This led to another home defeat when New Zealand beat us a year later.

Those who think that Mickey would have made Pakistan a top 3 side by the 2023 World Cup are the same delusional fans who are out of touch with reality that I mentioned earlier.

This is one aspect where I admire Misbah these days. He is, so far, not mincing his words and not selling dummies in pressers to feed the egos of our delusional fans by making sweet statements.

Misbah explicitly stated that it is very difficult for Pakistan to beat the top teams and he spoke the truth. However, his statement obviously did not go down well with the fans.

Pakistani fans need to accept the fact that Pakistan cricket is the poster boy of mediocrity, and bringing in young players will not change that. This mediocrity is deeply embedded within our cricket culture and the senior players alone are not responsible for it.

A year ago, everyone wanted Hafeez to retire. Today, no young batsman apart from Babar has the ability to outperform this 40 year old Hafeez.

99% of these young players that are coming through are mediocre as well, but fans see them becoming great players in the future because they are desperate and give themselves false hopes.

Everything about Pakistan cricket is mediocre. The vast majority of the players, the brand of cricket that we play, the body language of the players and their communication skills, the media analysts, the fans, the stadiums, the match day production etc. if you could use one word that perfectly encapsulates Pakistan cricket, the word you are looking for is mediocrity.

Beautiful.

 

[KoyoAli]

Here's another one that Mickey didn't have a lot of time for was Sami Aslam - didn't feel he worked hard enough.

He had attitude problems. It was clear to see for everyone, yet people are blaming PCB for "losing a talent".
PCB has made countless blunders and will continue to do so, Sami Aslam's case however is not one of them.

 

[Savak]

Here's another one that Mickey didn't have a lot of time for was Sami Aslam - didn't feel he worked hard enough.

Lol, i heard he caught Sami Aslam cheating on his diet in his room and that was the end of Sami Aslam being in Mickey Arthur's good books

 

[zacattakk]

Lol, i heard he caught Sami Aslam cheating on his diet in his room and that was the end of Sami Aslam being in Mickey Arthur's good books

Yeah, and if you do something that stupid and unprofessional then you only have yourself to blame.