Are Pakistan better or worse off after replacing Mickey Arthur with Misbah-ul-Haq as Head Coach?

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Mickey Arthur

Mickey Arthur took over the reins of the team in May 2016 and under his coaching Pakistan played a total of 133 matches in all formats.

Pakistan’s Test performances were not something to write home about, whilst ODI performances had room for improvement, but the T20I performances were close to immaculate, winning eleven series consecutively.


Misbah-ul-Haq

On 4 September 2019, Misbah was appointed as the head coach for Pakistan cricket team as well as chief selector on a 3-year contract. This started well for Misbah who won the One day international series 2–0 vs SL.

But then in the T20 series Sri Lanka pulled off a shock result and whitewashed Pakistan.

Afterwards he led the team in Australia where they lost the test series 2-0.

In October 2020, he resigned as chief selector of Pakistan national cricket team.

Pakistan also lost to England in England in Tests.

His first tour as just the Head Coach came against New Zealand where Pakistan were beaten 2-0.

After this he lead Pakistan to their first Test series win against South Africa since 2003, and more recently has seen Pakistan finish victorious on their tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe.


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So who was the better coach and are Pakistan better or worse off by replacing Mickey with Misbah?

 

[HappyWarsFan]

Better off with Misbah. Not because he is any good as a coach. But at least Misbah/Babar have basic sense on how to build a Test team and have decent strategy for tests.

Under Mickey it was a total shambles in tests, with no direction,.planning or tactics with team selection or tactics. Mickey would overload the test team with mediocre youngsters, like Shadab, Imam, etc. and would have poor tactics like picking 3 pacers in the UAE.

 

[Major]

Under Misbah we will do well in test.

In Odis, we havent lost a series yet under him.

T20, i dont really care for this

 

[Shoaibbtt]

I wish at some point we could increase M. Yousaf's role as his batting tips have done wonders for some of our boys.

Leave management as is, however apply pressure on the captain to make the final XI choices.

 

[hitthestump]

People say "we're better in tests under Misbah" but on what basis? All he has done is beaten a squalid South Africa at home and Zimbabwe. In every other assignments Pakistan have been hapless. Misbah even managed to throw away an opportunity in the 1st test in England where other more strategically astute coaches would never have.

Our LOI sides have gone backwards with a lot of progress undone in the last 2 years. Zero players have broken through in this era. Hardly anyone has noticeably improved. We are in a WC year and have no clue what our batting order looks like.

Amir has been mismanaged. Comebacks were futilely attempted for no-hopers like Akmal and Shehzad. Babar is openly called a dummy captain.

We have had humiliation after humilation. Sri Lanka series, losing to Zimbabwe, the "worst pace attack of all time" in Australia.

I pray that Misbah leaves Pakistan alone and we can get anyone but him into the role.

 

[Savak]

No major difference. Not a big fan of Misbah but there is a reason why the PCB stopped being conned by Mickey Arthur, the guy ended up being a disaster every where he went

 

[Pakhs]

Misbah so far has done nothing of note and has already some bad losses to his name. Mickey tenure was not successful but atleast he has CT17 to his name.

 

[SangasCoverDrive]

Under Misbah we will do well in test.

In Odis, we havent lost a series yet under him.

T20, i dont really care for this

So you don't care about T20 even though we are in T20 WC year? and how many ODI series have we played? Against SL Z, Zimbabwe and SA D team?

 

[Major]

So you don't care about T20 even though we are in T20 WC year? and how many ODI series have we played? Against SL Z, Zimbabwe and SA D team?

West Indies won two world t20 events, they dont even perofrm that well in t20 series.

T20 matches performance is irrelevent, and Pakistan really takes it to seriously


Well, again, its not like he had choice in odi series. He played what he was offered and won them. Sa first odi match was against a tough side, so dont know why you call that a D team.

If England decides to play a B team this summer, again how is that Pakistan's fault?

 

[Hasan123]

I wish at some point we could increase M. Yousaf's role as his batting tips have done wonders for some of our boys.

Leave management as is, however apply pressure on the captain to make the final XI choices.

Nah keep him at NCA or working with U16 batters or around that age. He cannot make significant changes to international players but he can do a lot for the up and coming players.

 

[Major]

People say "we're better in tests under Misbah" but on what basis? All he has done is beaten a squalid South Africa at home and Zimbabwe. In every other assignments Pakistan have been hapless. Misbah even managed to throw away an opportunity in the 1st test in England where other more strategically astute coaches would never have.

Our LOI sides have gone backwards with a lot of progress undone in the last 2 years. Zero players have broken through in this era. Hardly anyone has noticeably improved. We are in a WC year and have no clue what our batting order looks like.

Amir has been mismanaged. Comebacks were futilely attempted for no-hopers like Akmal and Shehzad. Babar is openly called a dummy captain.

We have had humiliation after humilation. Sri Lanka series, losing to Zimbabwe, the "worst pace attack of all time" in Australia.

I pray that Misbah leaves Pakistan alone and we can get anyone but him into the role.

your posts shows that you dont watch cricket and have no idea what you are saying.

Please come up with raesoning when giving out opinions.

Mickey Arthur was using more pacers than spinners on UAE, and we ended up losing our first series in UAE.
Misbah knows how to play test cricket. The SA team that came was a proper full team and Pakistan defeated them.

 

[Shoaibbtt]

People say "we're better in tests under Misbah" but on what basis? All he has done is beaten a squalid South Africa at home and Zimbabwe. In every other assignments Pakistan have been hapless. Misbah even managed to throw away an opportunity in the 1st test in England where other more strategically astute coaches would never have.

Our LOI sides have gone backwards with a lot of progress undone in the last 2 years. Zero players have broken through in this era. Hardly anyone has noticeably improved. We are in a WC year and have no clue what our batting order looks like.

Amir has been mismanaged. Comebacks were futilely attempted for no-hopers like Akmal and Shehzad. Babar is openly called a dummy captain.

We have had humiliation after humilation. Sri Lanka series, losing to Zimbabwe, the "worst pace attack of all time" in Australia.

I pray that Misbah leaves Pakistan alone and we can get anyone but him into the role.

Wow, don't even know where to start with your confusing statement.

1. We are better in tests and if anything i can see us topping in the next WTC cycle with NZ, Aus and Eng playing us at home. I wouldn't call South Africa a "Squalid" team, despite their failure they have a respectable test bowling line-up and should never be looked down upon in my view. Zimbabwe i will give you that, but again this is the problem of the higher ups and not Misbah who has nothing to do with the yearly schedule. The loss in the 1st test against England was Azhar Ali's fault and not Misbah's.

2. In terms of players improving and not improving in limited overs is not down to the coach himself but the players as well. I'm disappointed with young guns not snatching their chances but this again isn't Misbah's fault, i completely disagree with you our limited overs team just needs to improve the middle order and we are on our way to being a strong contender come the WC.

3. Amir has been "mismanaged", no his stubborn and baby attitude has done that and he is to blame for his own downfall. Comebacks are comebacks, if you can't make the most of it it's your fault all you can do is experiment and try.

4. Losses are losses we can't keep looking in the past and must look forward now. However, i am sick to death of typing on what we need to do in improving away performances and half the forum have echoed that as well several times.

 

[Saj]

A bit early in Misbah's tenure to make a full judgement perhaps, but I was surprised when they ditched an experienced coach like Mickey for someone who hadn't coached at the international level previously.

The jury is still out I guess regarding Misbah, although the public in large don't seem to be very impressed.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

your posts shows that you dont watch cricket and have no idea what you are saying.

Please come up with raesoning when giving out opinions.

Mickey Arthur was using more pacers than spinners on UAE, and we ended up losing our first series in UAE.
Misbah knows how to play test cricket. The SA team that came was a proper full team and Pakistan defeated them.

Do you think Misbah deserved to be the head coach of Pakistan after the sacking of Arthur?

Do you think if we were going to replace a coach like Mickey Arthur then it had to be because someone better was waiting to take his role, and did you think that would be Misbah?

Do you think it was right for Misbah to be in the committee that agreed to the sacking of Arthur, and then applying for the role himself even though he didn’t meet the PCB’s criteria?

 

[Major]

Do you think Misbah deserved to be the head coach of Pakistan after the sacking of Arthur?

Do you think if we were going to replace a coach like Mickey Arthur then it had to be because someone better was waiting to take his role, and did you think that would be Misbah?

Do you think it was right for Misbah to be in the committee that agreed to the sacking of Arthur, and then applying for the role himself even though he didn’t meet the PCB’s criteria?

If i answer your postz you are still gonna believe what supports the narrative you rally around.

Anywheres here you go.

When the comititee led by misbah was reviewing arthurs performance, the comititee was never told that the next coach would be misbah ul haq. Many of confuse this and think that misbah removed arthur and than applied, this never happened.

The comititee was well in its right to remove arthur, but till this day no one knows whether it was pm order, ehsan mani order or misbahs order to remove arthur. Anyways, even if misbah removed him nothing wrong.

After that the lookout for a new coach started. Misbah never approached pcb, after a while during the search, the pcb approached misbah. This is known as Misbah negotiated the contract according to his terms.

If misbah approached pcb, than no way would it had been possible for misbah to dictate how much pay he will get.
It was the other way around.

Now i highly doubt misbah predicted the future or went to a mystic to see if by removing arthur he would become coach or not.

The second issue with criteria. Misbah met the criteria. He not only fulfilled the coaching level as advertised but the experience level aswell. As the advertise did mention something like in similar capacities and misbah had been the captain of national team.

These job advertisements are not small issues. If misbah never fell in the criteria, anyone could had challeneged this in court and the court could remove misbah.


As for someone better, misbah is more than capable to coach this team. Foreign coaches dont like to play spinners, and pakistan due to its conditions at home and uae has to make strategies that support spin. Now rithrr pakistan could hire a coach from india who understands such concepts or go local. Over the years reading thr interviews and views of players, it is clear they dont understanf conditions.

Forget arthur, even sarfraz ahmed was such a buffoon that he didnt play a second spinner on the uae wicket..

Only very few understand the conditions of uae and how to take advantage of them.

During a t20 match unar akmal whined about misbah playing 2-3 spinners on uae which is why he cant keep wickets in test.

Pakistanis also have an issue that the coach should be a big name. We once hired a guy called woodward and he was bashed as he was an unknown entity for the Pakistanis.

As long as we do well in test and odi, i dont see any reason to kick out misbah.

 

[Rana]

Depressing coach

Depressing cricket

He needs to go.

 

[Major]

A bit early in Misbah's tenure to make a full judgement perhaps, but I was surprised when they ditched an experienced coach like Mickey for someone who hadn't coached at the international level previously.

The jury is still out I guess regarding Misbah, although the public in large don't seem to be very impressed.

The cognative biasness against misbah will always exist.

He could do anything and people will bash him just like we saw in his playing days.

The guy knows how to stay quiet, keep calm and present himself infront of the educated pcb admin. What makes him standout infront of pcb is his manners. Something that afridi, younis and co lack. Thus, we have seen become quite powerful in the pcb over the years.

I think the hate and love game will continue. People will keep on hating him and he will keep on working with pcb whether the public likes it or not.

Only issue is, he could lose his job at pcb when we get a media savy chairman who will try to please the awaam. Like zaka ashraf who forced him to reitre from t20

 

[daytrader]

Depressing coach

Depressing cricket

He needs to go.

Depressing fans

 

[Rana]

Depressing fans

Yes, especially those who support him and blame everything else in Pakistan to cover up his mediocrity as a coach

 

[Line and Length]

It's been a pretty unimpressive tenure from Misbah so far where he's made significant blunders which everyone's gone through at length over these last couple of years. The biggest aspect that's been a downgrade from Mickey to Misbah has been the development of young players. Mickey is an actually qualified coach who had a real eye for talent and helped groomed players like Hasan, Babar, Imam, and Shaheen and really left a mark on our cricket as a result for years to come. Most talented young players under Misbah have regressed considerably like Haider and Naseem and their confidence has been so badly shot that I don't know if they'll recover from this any time soon. Anyway, when we look at the bigger picture, we won the CT 2017 under Mickey and reached the #1 ranking in T20Is. He helped build a real core of white ball players which we still use today. I highly doubt we will see any such achievements under Misbah and I'll be very surprised to see him remain our coach past the T20 WC this year.

 

[Saj]

The cognative biasness against misbah will always exist.

He could do anything and people will bash him just like we saw in his playing days.

The guy knows how to stay quiet, keep calm and present himself infront of the educated pcb admin. What makes him standout infront of pcb is his manners. Something that afridi, younis and co lack. Thus, we have seen become quite powerful in the pcb over the years.

I think the hate and love game will continue. People will keep on hating him and he will keep on working with pcb whether the public likes it or not.

Only issue is, he could lose his job at pcb when we get a media savy chairman who will try to please the awaam. Like zaka ashraf who forced him to reitre from t20

I have a lot of respect for Misbah the cricketer. What he did for Pakistan cricket after it was on its knees due to the fixing saga should never be forgotten. In fact I would say what he did as a leader and as a player and an ambassador was under-appreciated.

However I do have concerns over whether he was ready to take over as Head Coach of the national team so soon into his coaching career. I want him to do well and hope he does, but only time will tell if he was the right appointment.

 

[moghul]

Any coach or even no coach would have been better than Misbah.

 

[daytrader]

Yes, especially those who support him and blame everything else in Pakistan to cover up his mediocrity as a coach

More like Misbah bashers that are looking for a scapegoat to blame years of systemic failures on

 

[Rana]

More like Misbah bashers that are looking for a scapegoat to blame years of systemic failures on

Well Misbah should not have stepped out of line when applying for the head coach role without any coaching badges to write about in the first place. His failures will be highlighted tenfold now due to the painful memories he brought to Pakistan cricket as an ODI leader/player.

 

[daytrader]

Well Misbah should not have stepped out of line when applying for the head coach role without any coaching badges to write about in the first place. His failures will be highlighted tenfold now due to the painful memories he brought to Pakistan cricket as an ODI leader/player.

He didn't step out of line, PCB approached him. [MENTION=135038]Major[/MENTION] covered these points in post 15.
Unfortunately your painful memories are only directed at one individual. We all watched 2007 t20wc and Mohali 2011. He's the ONLY batter that made us competitive in both games so please stop with the blind hatred and redirect your hatred towards the ttfs that lost us those matches instead of the person that tried his best. If you need help coping with the losses, watch the replays with an observant eye and you will find the true culprits

 

[Rana]

He didn't step out of line, PCB approached him. [MENTION=135038]Major[/MENTION] covered these points in post 15.
Unfortunately your painful memories are only directed at one individual. We all watched 2007 t20wc and Mohali 2011. He's the ONLY batter that made us competitive in both games so please stop with the blind hatred and redirect your hatred towards the ttfs that lost us those matches instead of the person that tried his best. If you need help coping with the losses, watch the replays with an observant eye and you will find the true culprits

I’m not even talking about 2007 and 2011. It was the 2013-15 period for Pakistan fans that was the most painful and depressing. This is when teams like South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India were really stepping the game up with an aggressive approach to batting. Meanwhile Misbah-ul-Haq was adamant to play the role of the saviour who knew his top 4 bats were going to be sitting ducks, and he could then bring his casual approach to the game. We fell behind leaps and bounds just in that 2 year period, whereas everyone else just took off after 2015!

Even if Pakistan did approach him, the man should have thought 100 times before accepting the job as he knows full well about the abuse that he suffers and how it affects his family when things were not going well for him as a player/captain. He really should not have been so overconfident about this role.

My issues with Misbah are not personal at all, he is good man. But professionally, the guy is out of his depth. Inzimam would have been a better candidate as head coach for Pakistan, this man gave up his job as the Afghanistan head coach to become the chief selector of Pakistan for a salary that was 1/3 of the amount that he was being paid for Afghanistan. Misbah really needed to do a lot more coaching before taking up a job like this, that is all.

 

[Manzy2599]

Better off with Misbah. Not because he is any good as a coach. But at least Misbah/Babar have basic sense on how to build a Test team and have decent strategy for tests.

Under Mickey it was a total shambles in tests, with no direction,.planning or tactics with team selection or tactics. Mickey would overload the test team with mediocre youngsters, like Shadab, Imam, etc. and would have poor tactics like picking 3 pacers in the UAE.

Are you kidding. In no way are we better of with Misbah unless fans are happy with him pulling the strings from the dugout. Mickey was actually a proper coach who was with teams like Australia and South Africa before pak so how did he have no direction, planning or tactics. I’d take Mickey on his worst day over Misbah. People who are blaming Mickey for Pakistan’s test failures have forgot that he was also coach when Pakistan ranked no 1 and got the test mace. Pakistan’s decline in tests started when Misbah and Younis retired and azhar and asad lost form in a batting line up which was always fragile. Then Amir and Wahab retired and yasir shah became inconsistent outside the uae so how was that mickeys fault. He could only play the players who were selected in the squad by inzamams chief selection committee. So of course if yasir was out he’d pick shadab being the only other spinner apart from Ifthikar on those uae tours.

Misbah doesn’t belong in any coaching set up anywhere in the world. Only in Pakistan you will see that someone who has multiple conflict of interests, no proper coaching credentials or experience be given the role of head coach, batting coach and chief selector. And we all know it was Imran khan who gave his pal Ehsan mani a call to hand over the reigns to his fellow niazi Misbah. No other country has this amount of nepotism and backward mindset to be foolish things like this. Opening with babar and Rizwan in T20s when you have proper openers in Fakhar and Sharjeel and your middle order is struggling. Any sensible coach would’ve made the change but Misbah is so stubborn that he does the opposite of what people want till they start losing to teams like Zimbabwe b and get criticised. Shame on Misbah who’s so scared of losing and has developed the fear factor into the players. They love using the word “modern” but are the most backwards and incompetent bunch I’ve seen who focus on “conserving wickets” and making up later approach which is the complete opposite of modern. This guy is a joke, can’t wait till him and Waqar leave the team for good.