PakPassion.Net: How did you ever keep your interest in cricket going at Habib - a school known for its hockey stars?
Shoaib Mohammad: I always had an interest in cricket because of so many stars from the family. Initially, cricket was not permitted and we were told that we cannot play it. However, then I tried a bit and spoke to Daddy, who requested the Principal and finally we were allowed to form a cricket team and occasionally organise cricket competitions. By the time we reached Matric, we became the champions in the inter-school competition for the first time; coincidentally, I was the captain then.
All the management was delighted at us winning the Schools’ Championship, and that provided a good start - [Habib public] school were the Cup holders and so the management supported us from then on.
PakPassion.Net: There were all hockey stars there, so how did you motivate yourself, and remain enthusiastic about cricket?
Shoaib Mohammad: Well, I was always keen on cricket, so going into Habib school didn’t impact me. I was into sports and had a sporting mindset, so even if I didn’t come into cricket, I would have come into hockey – I actually played that with a lot of diligence.
Hockey team world cup captain played there too and was with us at Matric. There were other hockey players who were very interested in cricket too and played a lot of it outside school, but once selected for Hockey department team, they went into that, attained limelight and performed well.
PakPassion.Net: Okay, on to our second question: You were technically a very sound batsman, and during your playing years, Pakistan did not have good openers or quality batsmen to bat at number 3, but despite all that, you only played 45 Tests. What do you think were the reasons for this?
Shoaib Mohammad: I thank Allah that my performances were very good. In fact, for opening and number 3, we probably haven’t had batsmen since me with that sort of a track record and career average. I played a lot of my cricket under Imran Khan sahab, and he used to stress a lot on staying at the wicket – if people 'dealt' with fast bowling by just hitting one and thus getting out, he would get furious and used to castigate them a lot in team meetings.
With regards to me, there were a lot of internal politics and jealousies. These were since even before I started playing for Pakistan, and even our own team players were involved. So this is one aspect of cricket that I faced at a very early age. Hence, naturally I wasn’t that perturbed by it and just played with determination - had those people succeeded, I wouldn’t even have played 5 Tests! Whenever I played, I did so with determination, and for the team and for the national flag, and for the name of my family. This motivation and drive was enough for me – my father’s name, my family’s name, Pakistan’s reputation – I kept my undivided attention on these, and I thank Allah for whatever fame I got as a result.
In those days, we had Deloitte World Rankings, it had only one category and they made me the number 1 ranked batsman in 1992. Despite that, the politics in Pakistan were such that on the 1992 tour to England, I was not selected in the team for the first four Tests and only included in the fifth and final deciding Test. But anyway, Allah blessed me there too, I just scored 55 in my only innings, but they were made at a very difficult stage [editors’ note: Shoaib was the second-highest scorer in that innings, after Miandad’s 59 – he came in at 64/1, and was out at 214/4 ]. So I thank Allah for that.
So yes, there were ups and downs through my career, but despite what some people wanted, Allah blessed me with honour.
PakPassion.Net: You are referring to the England tour immediately after the 1992 World Cup?
Shoaib Mohammad: Exactly. The one that was after the 1992 World Cup; the one where Imran Khan sahab had already selected his team whilst he was in Australia, and had me pencilled in at the forefront, that Shoaib will be our key batsman – however, I wasn’t aware then that internal politics were working against him too, and five senior players were against him and told the Cricket Board that if Imran Khan sahab was on the England tour, they’d refuse to tour. So when he saw all this, Imran bhai voluntarily announced his retirement.
PakPassion.Net: Another question in relation to this topic, is the persistent rumour that Karachi players are ignored because of politics and discrimination. Does this still happen?
Shoaib Mohammad: Yes, I feel these factors are still considered, even now to an extent. However, the issue in the past was that the quality of the players was significantly better than it is now, so axing them then was a bigger issue. Today, the back-to-back performances, the consistency etc of the players isn’t that good anyway, and they get a few chances and then its easy for them to be left out because the consistency just isn’t there.
PakPassion.Net: Were you ever abused whilst playing cricket because your background was from such a ‘royal’ family?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, I thank Allah that no one dared do that to my face, though the hidden jealousies were definitely there, but I never got bothered about these incidents. In fact the newspapers and magazines etc would sometimes report that ‘Shoaib lets his bat do the talking’; so thankfully, I never became verbal to anyone on these issues.
PakPassion.Net: Is there anyone you could name, who was involved in all this?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, I don’t think naming names at this stage is worth it. There were quite a few who were involved. Some people from Lahore were against me, but I thank Allah that their efforts were wasted – I was given a lot of opportunities, and hence even now, people know me, respect my achievements, I was involved with the Pakistan team as Assistant Coach to Javed Miandad sahab, had two stints in the Selection Committee, and people in general do give respect and recognition.
PakPassion.Net: How was Imran Khan’s behaviour towards you?
Shoaib Mohammad: Very good, He was the perfect tactician, and ever since he first realized about me that this guy is very important to the team, the team needs him, he works much harder than the other boys, so ever since then, he started pointing me out in team meetings to the others, that they should work hard like Shoaib does. Or he would also point out my innings as examples in team meetings. In particular, during the 1988 tour to the West Indies, when we won our first Test there, a lot of wickets had fallen early on, and a match-winning partnership between Javed bhai and me saved the day, so Imran bhai would always refer to that innings in our team meetings in order to inspire the players as an example.
Even when we used to be in the field, there were so many occasions when he would throw the ball to me out of the blue, and ask me to have a bowl – and on approximately Eight of those occasions, I ended up taking a wicket in my very first over! Whilst fielding, he would always assign me the areas which he felt the batsmen would target the most – there were plenty of other players in the team, but he didn’t rely on them the way he relied on me.
So yeah, he had a lot of faith in me, and the main thing was, he knew I’d never throw away my wicket, the way our players these days do and thus get out very easily.
PakPassion.Net: Our next question is about bowlers. Who was the toughest bowler you faced?
Shoaib Mohammad: The fastest and most intelligent bowlers I faced were definitely Malcolm Marshall and Richard Hadlee. There were plenty of other very good bowlers too, but there was a huge difference between them and these two in the sense that these two guys were masters at bowling according to their plans, and field positions, and fully understood the batsman’s strengths and weaknesses, and knew how to exploit them. They didn’t just turn up and bowl randomly. These were their qualities, which meant that as a batsman, one had to be a 'telepath', and attempt to constantly read their minds whilst facing them.
Batsmen had to develop some fighting abilities to deal with them as these guys had a lot of tricks up their sleeves; to counter that, one had to fight a mental battle too. Its Allah’s blessing that He gave me an opportunity to give good performances against both of these bowlers too.
PakPassion.Net: Let’s talk about fielding now. In those days, ground surfaces in Pakistan were very poor, so how did you motivate yourself for fielding and become one of the best Pakistani fielders?
Shoaib Mohammad: I have always greatly enjoyed fielding, but initially, I was keen on it despite not being very good at it. So when I first came in to the junior teams, was selected in the PIA Colts, my batting was still reasonably good though I was young, but I wasn’t able to field that well, even though I really wanted to.
It took time to develop my fielding – fielding is one discipline where even without any natural talent, as long as one’s passionate about it and wants to become a better or one of the top fielders, one can achieve the target or at least get nearer to it just through sheer hard work. Of course, one needs to have the spark and the intelligence to achieve this goal too.
Naturally, this spark and the motivation doesn’t happen in a day, but what should motivate one is that after waiting for a whole day, you make one extraordinary catch - the desire to get that one match-winning catch should motivate one. Of course, behind that one catch is the effort and hard work and the fielding of many, many days. However, once you make such a remarkable catch, that feeling is so wonderful that it sparks one’s motivation, creates a drive to excel at fielding, and because of that one is ever more excited to enter the field in the next match, to again make a contribution, and one's always ready in the next match to get a run-out, or make an extraordinary catch, etc.
Of course, if you don’t have the motivation to become an extraordinary fielder, you end up being just a ‘normal’ fielder, rather than an extremely good one.
So if you want to be the best of the best, you have to love this part of cricket. You’ve got to be in total love with the fielding aspect of the game too – if not, you end up with the attitude of some people, who try and avoid fielding drills when the sun’s too bright!
In order to develop extraordinary fielding, one has to go beyond the 10am-5pm routine of playing cricket; doing fielding in just the cricket-playing hours isn’t enough. It requires extraordinary hours in addition to that, you have to spend quality time in fielding to be better than most other fielders.
PakPassion.Net: You commented that some people get tired of fielding drills - that probably explains why Pakistani fielders drop so many catches!
Shoaib Mohammad: You are right in a way. As I said, you’ve got to love fielding. If you have this love, you won’t want to rest in your leisure time! The usual response whilst fielding, to stand where you expect the ball not to be hit, or to wish that the catch doesn’t come to you because you’re scared of dropping it, also means that when that catch actually comes, you’ll most probably end up dropping it!
The way to deal with it is to go to the captain and ask to be placed in the difficult positions, the fielding positions where the ball is expected the most. However, the hesitancy and uncertainty inherent in lesser fielders, who try to hide from the ball, ends up getting exposed on the field in front of large crowds – they are shaky, their hands are fumbling the ball time and again, they make sudden, jerky movements, and thus end up mis-fielding. If, on the other hand, you’re cool and collected, take the ball in a calm manner, than the natural hand-eye coordination is much smoother – of course, fumbles could still happen once in a blue moon, but mostly, by staying calm you make a clean pick-up and release the ball much quicker.
The better fielders around the world are those who know how to release the ball earlier – the sooner, the better.
PakPassion.Net: Absolutely, that’s spot on. We’d like to talk about our current openers next. Who do you think are the accomplished openers currently in the Pakistani domestic set-up who can make the step-up to the national side?
Shoaib Mohammad: Well if you are referring to the young blood, then a chap called Azhar Ali I think, he plays for one of the Pindi teams I think and played recently against Sri Lanka too when they visited, he scored a century in the first 3-day match I seem to recall.
In addition, there’s Umar Amin, he’s a Lahore or a Pindi player, he plays each ball according to its merit, as opposed to meeting the ball very early.
This is crucial, especially for an opener, since as an opener, sometimes you have to defend, at other times, you have to attack – basically, you need to know how to shift through your gears. If the bowler is very good, then you need to go into a shell to counter him, in order not to give too many chances to the bowler. If he’s one of the best bowlers in the world, then you can confront him and claim to be one of the best batsmen in the world by scoring an accomplished century against him; you don’t become the best batsman in the world by scoring 20 fours in that century, since of course that would be a freak occurrence and would only happen once in your lifetime – once in a life events don’t make you the best batsman in the world.
So you have to learn these tricks of the trade. Need to learn how to overcome the situation, how to get out of troubled waters, and then later on, score runs freely when they come by itself. There are times when runs will come much easier than at other times. If you’re in a spot of bother, are not even getting singles, then you just need to concentrate on not throwing away your wicket. Even if you’re facing the fastest and the best bowler in the world, he’ll not bowl more than a 4 or 5 over spell, he will be changed after his spell when he tires, and that’s the time for you to score your runs freely. It is thus not necessary to target that best bowler, to attack him and then lose your wicket and return to the pavilion.
Returning to your question, yes we do have some good young players, but they need to be educated. However, we do not have the minds, either in Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy or even in our national team, who can point out such issues to the youngsters and then rectify them.
PakPassion.Net: Umar Amin performed really well initially but hasn’t done that well in the recent domestic season.
Shoaib Mohammad: Well if someone’s a good player, that doesn’t mean he will always perform! You have to select them at the right time, when they are in form, when their morale is much higher. Even the best batsman in the world will have a poor year, he might have four good years but there always be one year where his performance his weak – thus no one can be the best every year.
So its crucial to select them at the right moment, and not leave gaps.
PakPassion.Net: We agree, Umar Amin should definitely be in our A-team because he’s technically good. Let’s look at our current openers: Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez and Khalid Latif. Which two from these do you feel are technically better, and should open in our Test and ODI teams? Could you name them please?
Shoaib Mohammad: I think from these, Salman Butt is the one who can play a bit. However, the issue is the lack of proper guidance that I mentioned earlier, and hence he throws away his wicket very early in his innings. He ends up playing too many shots in too short a span of time. Sure, on a few occasions those shots find the boundaries, but then on many days they result in his early downfall.
PakPassion.Net: But who would you say is technically the better opener?
Shoaib Mohammad: Well, Salman Butt’s played a fair amount for Pakistan so he can at least understand things better. Imran Farhat is good in the sense that he’s very gutsy, but it’s the same issue with him – too many shots and thus he doesn’t fulfil the requirements of an opener. Sure, they are getting all these chances, but they performance is not as it should be.
PakPassion.Net: Yes, the issue with Imran Farhat is that he often gets 20 or 25, gets set and then gets out. Isn’t that very unusual, for an opener to get set and then get out for low scores?
Shoaib Mohammad: Exactly – that’s an issue with the team management. If you have a coach who’s a bowler, what will he tell him? You need to give tips to the players on how to survive and how not to get out. Of course, the batsmen should know and understand this too, but sometimes they bat in one ‘flow’ and that exposes their mistakes.
PakPassion.Net: If you are given the opportunity to work with Salman Butt and Imran Farhat, what areas would you like to work on?
Shoaib Mohammad: Basically, what I’ve mentioned earlier would have to be stressed to them. Whenever they make a mistake, it should be highlighted to them straight away – if its not pointed out to them, they’ll keep on playing those wrong shots. They need to learn how to wait for the right moment. A car doesn’t always travel in the same gear with no change of gear! As an opener too, you need to learn how to change gears. So these are the points, and of course there are ways of applying them in practice.
PakPassion.Net: How do you rate Khalid Latif?
Shoaib Mohammad: He’s been given a lot of chances recently, but despite the fact that he’s a good player, his performances have not been that good.
PakPassion.Net: If you are offered a coaching job by Pakistan, would you be interested?
Shoaib Mohammad: Depends on the nature of the offer. If there is an offer, and it’s interesting enough, I’ll think about it once it comes.
PakPassion.Net: How do you rate your son Shezar's performance so far? Do you think he should leave keeping and concentrate only on batting?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, it’s a big plus point that he’s a good keeper and he’s been taking very good catches behind the wickets. I’ve not seen those catches, as I wasn’t with the side, but some of them are brilliant I understand. So that’s a plus point as it involves him in the field most of the time. That’s a good sign, will help him mentally in batting too.
PakPassion.Net: How would you rate his batting?
Shoaib Mohammad: There’s room for adjustment, the sooner he addresses it, the better. He just returned and has played two matches for PIA, and though he scored 70 odd in the first game, there are a few issues he needs to address. Once those are addressed, Insha Allah he will become better.
PakPassion.Net: Okay, last question. You were working with Abdul Qadir in the Pakistan Selection Committee recently. During that time, was there any pressure on the Committee from the PCB on selecting or not selecting certain players? Were the selectors empowered?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, there were no such issues. Whenever we would stress on an issue or about a player, the Board would listen and would be very cooperative and helpful.
Actually, my grudge with the Board is different. My issue is that they don’t have the right people working, either in the Board or working with the team in the management and coaching. But no, on the issues of player selections, they always accepted our suggestions
PakPassion.Net: Do you have any names in mind, of who should be the coach of the Pakistan team?
Shoaib Mohammad: All I can say is that whatever benefits they could get from foreign coaches, they have received them already. So now they shouldn’t look any further
PakPassion.Net: Thank you very much for your time today on behalf of PakPassion.Net
Shoaib Mohammad: Thank you, and Allah Hafiz.
Shoaib Mohammad: I always had an interest in cricket because of so many stars from the family. Initially, cricket was not permitted and we were told that we cannot play it. However, then I tried a bit and spoke to Daddy, who requested the Principal and finally we were allowed to form a cricket team and occasionally organise cricket competitions. By the time we reached Matric, we became the champions in the inter-school competition for the first time; coincidentally, I was the captain then.
All the management was delighted at us winning the Schools’ Championship, and that provided a good start - [Habib public] school were the Cup holders and so the management supported us from then on.
PakPassion.Net: There were all hockey stars there, so how did you motivate yourself, and remain enthusiastic about cricket?
Shoaib Mohammad: Well, I was always keen on cricket, so going into Habib school didn’t impact me. I was into sports and had a sporting mindset, so even if I didn’t come into cricket, I would have come into hockey – I actually played that with a lot of diligence.
Hockey team world cup captain played there too and was with us at Matric. There were other hockey players who were very interested in cricket too and played a lot of it outside school, but once selected for Hockey department team, they went into that, attained limelight and performed well.
PakPassion.Net: Okay, on to our second question: You were technically a very sound batsman, and during your playing years, Pakistan did not have good openers or quality batsmen to bat at number 3, but despite all that, you only played 45 Tests. What do you think were the reasons for this?
Shoaib Mohammad: I thank Allah that my performances were very good. In fact, for opening and number 3, we probably haven’t had batsmen since me with that sort of a track record and career average. I played a lot of my cricket under Imran Khan sahab, and he used to stress a lot on staying at the wicket – if people 'dealt' with fast bowling by just hitting one and thus getting out, he would get furious and used to castigate them a lot in team meetings.
With regards to me, there were a lot of internal politics and jealousies. These were since even before I started playing for Pakistan, and even our own team players were involved. So this is one aspect of cricket that I faced at a very early age. Hence, naturally I wasn’t that perturbed by it and just played with determination - had those people succeeded, I wouldn’t even have played 5 Tests! Whenever I played, I did so with determination, and for the team and for the national flag, and for the name of my family. This motivation and drive was enough for me – my father’s name, my family’s name, Pakistan’s reputation – I kept my undivided attention on these, and I thank Allah for whatever fame I got as a result.
In those days, we had Deloitte World Rankings, it had only one category and they made me the number 1 ranked batsman in 1992. Despite that, the politics in Pakistan were such that on the 1992 tour to England, I was not selected in the team for the first four Tests and only included in the fifth and final deciding Test. But anyway, Allah blessed me there too, I just scored 55 in my only innings, but they were made at a very difficult stage [editors’ note: Shoaib was the second-highest scorer in that innings, after Miandad’s 59 – he came in at 64/1, and was out at 214/4 ]. So I thank Allah for that.
So yes, there were ups and downs through my career, but despite what some people wanted, Allah blessed me with honour.
PakPassion.Net: You are referring to the England tour immediately after the 1992 World Cup?
Shoaib Mohammad: Exactly. The one that was after the 1992 World Cup; the one where Imran Khan sahab had already selected his team whilst he was in Australia, and had me pencilled in at the forefront, that Shoaib will be our key batsman – however, I wasn’t aware then that internal politics were working against him too, and five senior players were against him and told the Cricket Board that if Imran Khan sahab was on the England tour, they’d refuse to tour. So when he saw all this, Imran bhai voluntarily announced his retirement.
PakPassion.Net: Another question in relation to this topic, is the persistent rumour that Karachi players are ignored because of politics and discrimination. Does this still happen?
Shoaib Mohammad: Yes, I feel these factors are still considered, even now to an extent. However, the issue in the past was that the quality of the players was significantly better than it is now, so axing them then was a bigger issue. Today, the back-to-back performances, the consistency etc of the players isn’t that good anyway, and they get a few chances and then its easy for them to be left out because the consistency just isn’t there.
PakPassion.Net: Were you ever abused whilst playing cricket because your background was from such a ‘royal’ family?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, I thank Allah that no one dared do that to my face, though the hidden jealousies were definitely there, but I never got bothered about these incidents. In fact the newspapers and magazines etc would sometimes report that ‘Shoaib lets his bat do the talking’; so thankfully, I never became verbal to anyone on these issues.
PakPassion.Net: Is there anyone you could name, who was involved in all this?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, I don’t think naming names at this stage is worth it. There were quite a few who were involved. Some people from Lahore were against me, but I thank Allah that their efforts were wasted – I was given a lot of opportunities, and hence even now, people know me, respect my achievements, I was involved with the Pakistan team as Assistant Coach to Javed Miandad sahab, had two stints in the Selection Committee, and people in general do give respect and recognition.
PakPassion.Net: How was Imran Khan’s behaviour towards you?
Shoaib Mohammad: Very good, He was the perfect tactician, and ever since he first realized about me that this guy is very important to the team, the team needs him, he works much harder than the other boys, so ever since then, he started pointing me out in team meetings to the others, that they should work hard like Shoaib does. Or he would also point out my innings as examples in team meetings. In particular, during the 1988 tour to the West Indies, when we won our first Test there, a lot of wickets had fallen early on, and a match-winning partnership between Javed bhai and me saved the day, so Imran bhai would always refer to that innings in our team meetings in order to inspire the players as an example.
Even when we used to be in the field, there were so many occasions when he would throw the ball to me out of the blue, and ask me to have a bowl – and on approximately Eight of those occasions, I ended up taking a wicket in my very first over! Whilst fielding, he would always assign me the areas which he felt the batsmen would target the most – there were plenty of other players in the team, but he didn’t rely on them the way he relied on me.
So yeah, he had a lot of faith in me, and the main thing was, he knew I’d never throw away my wicket, the way our players these days do and thus get out very easily.
PakPassion.Net: Our next question is about bowlers. Who was the toughest bowler you faced?
Shoaib Mohammad: The fastest and most intelligent bowlers I faced were definitely Malcolm Marshall and Richard Hadlee. There were plenty of other very good bowlers too, but there was a huge difference between them and these two in the sense that these two guys were masters at bowling according to their plans, and field positions, and fully understood the batsman’s strengths and weaknesses, and knew how to exploit them. They didn’t just turn up and bowl randomly. These were their qualities, which meant that as a batsman, one had to be a 'telepath', and attempt to constantly read their minds whilst facing them.
Batsmen had to develop some fighting abilities to deal with them as these guys had a lot of tricks up their sleeves; to counter that, one had to fight a mental battle too. Its Allah’s blessing that He gave me an opportunity to give good performances against both of these bowlers too.
PakPassion.Net: Let’s talk about fielding now. In those days, ground surfaces in Pakistan were very poor, so how did you motivate yourself for fielding and become one of the best Pakistani fielders?
Shoaib Mohammad: I have always greatly enjoyed fielding, but initially, I was keen on it despite not being very good at it. So when I first came in to the junior teams, was selected in the PIA Colts, my batting was still reasonably good though I was young, but I wasn’t able to field that well, even though I really wanted to.
It took time to develop my fielding – fielding is one discipline where even without any natural talent, as long as one’s passionate about it and wants to become a better or one of the top fielders, one can achieve the target or at least get nearer to it just through sheer hard work. Of course, one needs to have the spark and the intelligence to achieve this goal too.
Naturally, this spark and the motivation doesn’t happen in a day, but what should motivate one is that after waiting for a whole day, you make one extraordinary catch - the desire to get that one match-winning catch should motivate one. Of course, behind that one catch is the effort and hard work and the fielding of many, many days. However, once you make such a remarkable catch, that feeling is so wonderful that it sparks one’s motivation, creates a drive to excel at fielding, and because of that one is ever more excited to enter the field in the next match, to again make a contribution, and one's always ready in the next match to get a run-out, or make an extraordinary catch, etc.
Of course, if you don’t have the motivation to become an extraordinary fielder, you end up being just a ‘normal’ fielder, rather than an extremely good one.
So if you want to be the best of the best, you have to love this part of cricket. You’ve got to be in total love with the fielding aspect of the game too – if not, you end up with the attitude of some people, who try and avoid fielding drills when the sun’s too bright!
In order to develop extraordinary fielding, one has to go beyond the 10am-5pm routine of playing cricket; doing fielding in just the cricket-playing hours isn’t enough. It requires extraordinary hours in addition to that, you have to spend quality time in fielding to be better than most other fielders.
PakPassion.Net: You commented that some people get tired of fielding drills - that probably explains why Pakistani fielders drop so many catches!
Shoaib Mohammad: You are right in a way. As I said, you’ve got to love fielding. If you have this love, you won’t want to rest in your leisure time! The usual response whilst fielding, to stand where you expect the ball not to be hit, or to wish that the catch doesn’t come to you because you’re scared of dropping it, also means that when that catch actually comes, you’ll most probably end up dropping it!
The way to deal with it is to go to the captain and ask to be placed in the difficult positions, the fielding positions where the ball is expected the most. However, the hesitancy and uncertainty inherent in lesser fielders, who try to hide from the ball, ends up getting exposed on the field in front of large crowds – they are shaky, their hands are fumbling the ball time and again, they make sudden, jerky movements, and thus end up mis-fielding. If, on the other hand, you’re cool and collected, take the ball in a calm manner, than the natural hand-eye coordination is much smoother – of course, fumbles could still happen once in a blue moon, but mostly, by staying calm you make a clean pick-up and release the ball much quicker.
The better fielders around the world are those who know how to release the ball earlier – the sooner, the better.
PakPassion.Net: Absolutely, that’s spot on. We’d like to talk about our current openers next. Who do you think are the accomplished openers currently in the Pakistani domestic set-up who can make the step-up to the national side?
Shoaib Mohammad: Well if you are referring to the young blood, then a chap called Azhar Ali I think, he plays for one of the Pindi teams I think and played recently against Sri Lanka too when they visited, he scored a century in the first 3-day match I seem to recall.
In addition, there’s Umar Amin, he’s a Lahore or a Pindi player, he plays each ball according to its merit, as opposed to meeting the ball very early.
This is crucial, especially for an opener, since as an opener, sometimes you have to defend, at other times, you have to attack – basically, you need to know how to shift through your gears. If the bowler is very good, then you need to go into a shell to counter him, in order not to give too many chances to the bowler. If he’s one of the best bowlers in the world, then you can confront him and claim to be one of the best batsmen in the world by scoring an accomplished century against him; you don’t become the best batsman in the world by scoring 20 fours in that century, since of course that would be a freak occurrence and would only happen once in your lifetime – once in a life events don’t make you the best batsman in the world.
So you have to learn these tricks of the trade. Need to learn how to overcome the situation, how to get out of troubled waters, and then later on, score runs freely when they come by itself. There are times when runs will come much easier than at other times. If you’re in a spot of bother, are not even getting singles, then you just need to concentrate on not throwing away your wicket. Even if you’re facing the fastest and the best bowler in the world, he’ll not bowl more than a 4 or 5 over spell, he will be changed after his spell when he tires, and that’s the time for you to score your runs freely. It is thus not necessary to target that best bowler, to attack him and then lose your wicket and return to the pavilion.
Returning to your question, yes we do have some good young players, but they need to be educated. However, we do not have the minds, either in Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy or even in our national team, who can point out such issues to the youngsters and then rectify them.
PakPassion.Net: Umar Amin performed really well initially but hasn’t done that well in the recent domestic season.
Shoaib Mohammad: Well if someone’s a good player, that doesn’t mean he will always perform! You have to select them at the right time, when they are in form, when their morale is much higher. Even the best batsman in the world will have a poor year, he might have four good years but there always be one year where his performance his weak – thus no one can be the best every year.
So its crucial to select them at the right moment, and not leave gaps.
PakPassion.Net: We agree, Umar Amin should definitely be in our A-team because he’s technically good. Let’s look at our current openers: Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez and Khalid Latif. Which two from these do you feel are technically better, and should open in our Test and ODI teams? Could you name them please?
Shoaib Mohammad: I think from these, Salman Butt is the one who can play a bit. However, the issue is the lack of proper guidance that I mentioned earlier, and hence he throws away his wicket very early in his innings. He ends up playing too many shots in too short a span of time. Sure, on a few occasions those shots find the boundaries, but then on many days they result in his early downfall.
PakPassion.Net: But who would you say is technically the better opener?
Shoaib Mohammad: Well, Salman Butt’s played a fair amount for Pakistan so he can at least understand things better. Imran Farhat is good in the sense that he’s very gutsy, but it’s the same issue with him – too many shots and thus he doesn’t fulfil the requirements of an opener. Sure, they are getting all these chances, but they performance is not as it should be.
PakPassion.Net: Yes, the issue with Imran Farhat is that he often gets 20 or 25, gets set and then gets out. Isn’t that very unusual, for an opener to get set and then get out for low scores?
Shoaib Mohammad: Exactly – that’s an issue with the team management. If you have a coach who’s a bowler, what will he tell him? You need to give tips to the players on how to survive and how not to get out. Of course, the batsmen should know and understand this too, but sometimes they bat in one ‘flow’ and that exposes their mistakes.
PakPassion.Net: If you are given the opportunity to work with Salman Butt and Imran Farhat, what areas would you like to work on?
Shoaib Mohammad: Basically, what I’ve mentioned earlier would have to be stressed to them. Whenever they make a mistake, it should be highlighted to them straight away – if its not pointed out to them, they’ll keep on playing those wrong shots. They need to learn how to wait for the right moment. A car doesn’t always travel in the same gear with no change of gear! As an opener too, you need to learn how to change gears. So these are the points, and of course there are ways of applying them in practice.
PakPassion.Net: How do you rate Khalid Latif?
Shoaib Mohammad: He’s been given a lot of chances recently, but despite the fact that he’s a good player, his performances have not been that good.
PakPassion.Net: If you are offered a coaching job by Pakistan, would you be interested?
Shoaib Mohammad: Depends on the nature of the offer. If there is an offer, and it’s interesting enough, I’ll think about it once it comes.
PakPassion.Net: How do you rate your son Shezar's performance so far? Do you think he should leave keeping and concentrate only on batting?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, it’s a big plus point that he’s a good keeper and he’s been taking very good catches behind the wickets. I’ve not seen those catches, as I wasn’t with the side, but some of them are brilliant I understand. So that’s a plus point as it involves him in the field most of the time. That’s a good sign, will help him mentally in batting too.
PakPassion.Net: How would you rate his batting?
Shoaib Mohammad: There’s room for adjustment, the sooner he addresses it, the better. He just returned and has played two matches for PIA, and though he scored 70 odd in the first game, there are a few issues he needs to address. Once those are addressed, Insha Allah he will become better.
PakPassion.Net: Okay, last question. You were working with Abdul Qadir in the Pakistan Selection Committee recently. During that time, was there any pressure on the Committee from the PCB on selecting or not selecting certain players? Were the selectors empowered?
Shoaib Mohammad: No, there were no such issues. Whenever we would stress on an issue or about a player, the Board would listen and would be very cooperative and helpful.
Actually, my grudge with the Board is different. My issue is that they don’t have the right people working, either in the Board or working with the team in the management and coaching. But no, on the issues of player selections, they always accepted our suggestions
PakPassion.Net: Do you have any names in mind, of who should be the coach of the Pakistan team?
Shoaib Mohammad: All I can say is that whatever benefits they could get from foreign coaches, they have received them already. So now they shouldn’t look any further
PakPassion.Net: Thank you very much for your time today on behalf of PakPassion.Net
Shoaib Mohammad: Thank you, and Allah Hafiz.
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