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Did the PCB shoot themselves in the foot by letting Mickey Arthur leave?

MenInG

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I will be honest, given the lack of names being mentioned to coach Pakistan, I am getting very worried about our future.

Should PCB have sounded people out confidentially first before letting Mickey go? There seems to have been no planning and maybe an assumption made that quality candidates will be lining up to take this job.

For our sakes, hope this is true, else we could become the objects of ridicule in World Cricket.

The deadline for applications is tomorrow
 
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They probably could had told him to reapply. But there was no point in making him stay in Pakistan till September if we were not gonna hire him.

Mickey Arthur made 2 critical mistakes which cost us alot.
The UAE team selection where we didnt have another spinner and were playing bilal asif

Second was the world cup squad joke. The world cup was about to start and he didnt know who to select. Based on that he had to be let off.
 
Who are the applicants at the moment..

Looks like only Deano is there as an int'l applicant... He is desperate to coach pakistan and should get it this time around
 
Yes. What a pointless sacking this has turned out to be.
 
Terrible sacking as many of us said. When the vast majority of a site like PakPassion backs a Pakistani coach who has been in office for three years already, it tells you something. He should have been backed and given an extension till the next World Cup.
 
Thanks to all the "Experts" and "Journalists" for putting pressure on PCB to make this move.
 
Who are the applicants at the moment..

Looks like only Deano is there as an int'l applicant... He is desperate to coach pakistan and should get it this time around

So he will get it in absence of other applicants, and not because he is better!
 
So he will get it in absence of other applicants, and not because he is better!

His ISLU team has won twice compared to MICKEYs team which couldnt reach the finals yet despite having world class T20 players playing for them...'So there is something BETTER that he does than MICKEY'
 
His ISLU team has won twice compared to MICKEYs team which couldnt reach the finals yet despite having world class T20 players playing for them...'So there is something BETTER that he does than MICKEY'

Not doubting that but would want genuine competition for the job.
 
People going on as if the coach is going to bat, bowl and field in every match and every position. And that Mickey in his 3 years had transformed Pakistan cricket team into the new invincibles.

The results leading up to the coach's sacking were disastrous - the worse sequence of results a Pakistani team has gone through for decades.

To say Mickey was correcting things and needed time is also wrong. His team was going backwards and there was no plan in sight.

Get some perspective.

More importantly, This overemphasis on the coach distracts from the no 1 job of PCB - finding the right captain and empowering him.
 
Mickey had his chance to create a case for himself in the PCB Cricketing Committee meeting, he failed to create a positive impression, failed to provide satisfactory explanations and was scapegoating the captain and a few of the players. He when asked to explain the decline in the teams performance, he said fielding and blamed the PCB for the Steve Rixon exit.

Mickey Arthur's extension was not a right. I am glad PCB saw things objectively and Azhar Mahmood has already confirmed that Mickey had a lot of power compared to Sarfaraz and Inzamam.

Anyways you make criminal mistakes in your coaching tenure repeatedly, you fail to impress your employers on why you should be retained, you get shown the door as is supposed to be the case in any professional environment
 
The reason why the PCB is failing to attract top names is because of the non competitive salary and peeks in the position. The BCCI is paying Shastri $1 million a year and he is the highest paid coach in the world. Not to say that the PCB is supposed to match that kind of salary because it can't but it has to be somewhat competitive in comparison to most boards if you want to attract top talent.

Unfortunately according to the reporters the PCB is getting a lot of initial inquiries from worldwide applicants but once the PCB clarifies the salaries, bonuses, perks, they don't get back to the PCB which clearly tells you what the problem really is
 
the incentives for Pakistan the coaching job are clearly not enough. you have to compensate somewhere.

on top of that they have zero credibility. late payments, toxic environment, bad atmosphere in general.
 
The test championship has now started and it's clear PCB is more focused on that. World cup has gone.

Mickey's record in tests is abysmal, hence it's understandable PCB don't want to take a risk and continue with him.

I think the test championship is also a main reason why Misbah is even being considered/rumoured (even though I know he hasn't applied yet).
 
Our test form, plays and selections were abysmal for which both Arthur and Inzi have to take huge blame. Our ODI performances in CT was good, WC was Average, otherwise our ODI performances in general were pathetic.

So in reality the team did not improve much if at all under Arthur/inzis guidance.
 
To be honest you dont have to be a big name to better what Mickey Arther has achieved i.e loosing every single thing post Misbah except Aus series.

In LOIs he was decent but a bit lucky as well due to the influx of players due to PSL showcasing young talented cricketers which would never have been seen so early at international level. None of the new players would have played if it was not for PSL showcasing them and Mickey watching only PSL for the talent recognition purposes.

To further prove my point there is not a single guy I can remember Mickey hand picked from Pakistan’s domestic setup and turned him into a star. There were only 3 players who debuted without playing PSL in Abbas, Imam and Faheem and I dont think Mickey has much to do with these selections. He used to rate Usama Mir pretty highly but he wasnt even tried in single T20 international let alone other formats.

Not to forget poor selections for test matches under his tenure. Playing 3 seamers with one spinner against Srl on surfaces where they were playing 3 would take the throne along with many other mistakes you dont expect from an international coach.


Mickey didnt make many mistakes with the positions of the players rather did that right. People who say Babar developed under him dont realize Babar was being rated when he was playing U16 and U19, yes Mickey atleast didnt put him in odd batting positions. So credit where its due but Babar would still have become the player he is now irrespective of the coach he played under. Not a fan of Waqar as a coach but Babar was selected debuted under his tenure and same was the case with Haris Sohail if I am not wrong.

Take PSL products out of Mickey’s tenure and to be honest I dont see anything in terms of what he has produced or achieved.
 
No.

Accepting Mickey was accepting mediocrity.

Honestly, any analysis of the WC planning, build up & campaign finds nothing but fail after fail.

I am amazed at the leeway shown to this clown just because he showed emotion for he cause... who cares, he was blindly incompetent.

Resting players before cup= fail- killed momentum, confused players & achieved nothing.

Squad selection= fail. Brought in players from outside top 30. What kind of thinking is that- he had TWO YEARS to think on this.

Squad use= fail. Selected young quick who couldn't be used. Ignored best middle order player until too late. Had no idea of best team even after 2 years planning.

Tournament readiness= fail. See above. See also loss of fielding coach not adequately covered resulting in Pakistan being embarrassed by having the worst catching in the cup, including minnows.BELOW minnow standard fielding.

ALL of these fall ultimately on the strength of the head coach. If he is too weak or useless to do this, why hand him $$$ for failure?
 
Said this multiple times across many threads. Letting Mickey go is going to cost Pakistan dearly. The man was passionate and stiked a chord with all players in Pakistan perfectly. Even as an Indian, I feel bad for Pakistan team now. World needs a strong Pakistan side with a great coach.
 
His ISLU team has won twice compared to MICKEYs team which couldnt reach the finals yet despite having world class T20 players playing for them...'So there is something BETTER that he does than MICKEY'

Coaching record in a pyjama league like PSL means nothing. What's relevant is a coach's international record and Dean Jones has not even coached a domestic team let alone an international team.
 
To be honest you dont have to be a big name to better what Mickey Arther has achieved i.e loosing every single thing post Misbah except Aus series.
Mickey inherited a deplorable and unfit ODI and T20 team from Waqar who had us tottering in 9th and 7th in rankings. We finished 5th in the WC only missing out on SF qualification via NRR, we bagged an ICC 50 over trophy for first time since 1992, and are 1st in T20s.

Versus top 10 teams, Mickey had a W/L ratio of 0.735 whereas the Pep Guardiola of cricket Waqar had ratio of 0.347 ! Under Waqar we crossed 300 twice but under Mickey we've done so 14 times ! Our RPO, bowling average and economy rates have also improved. How can you say that counts for nothing ?

In LOIs he was decent but a bit lucky as well due to the influx of players due to PSL showcasing young talented cricketers which would never have been seen so early at international level. None of the new players would have played if it was not for PSL showcasing them and Mickey watching only PSL for the talent recognition purposes.
PSL is a rubbish second rate league. We are better off NOT using PSL for selections - see the failures of Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Faheem Ashraf, Rumman Raees and other PSL wonders at international level.

To further prove my point there is not a single guy I can remember Mickey hand picked from Pakistan’s domestic setup and turned him into a star. There were only 3 players who debuted without playing PSL in Abbas, Imam and Faheem and I dont think Mickey has much to do with these selections.
You need to make up your mind either Mickey had a say in selections or he doesn't. Or does he get no credit for the good selections and all the blame for the bad ones ?
He used to rate Usama Mir pretty highly but he wasnt even tried in single T20 international let alone other formats.
If he picked Usama Mir then you, Slog and others would've shouted that Mickey is showing favoritism to Karachi Kings players !

Not to forget poor selections for test matches under his tenure. Playing 3 seamers with one spinner against Srl on surfaces where they were playing 3 would take the throne along with many other mistakes you dont expect from an international coach.
That was a bad call but fact is our unbeaten UAE Test record would be intact if Captain Useless scored 27 runs across those two close Abu Dhabi chases we lost.

However Sarfraz cannot play a responsible innings if his life depended on it yet he remains in his job (along with his Test average of 25 as captain) yet Mickey and Inzamam have been sacked ! Total injustice.

Mickey didnt make many mistakes with the positions of the players rather did that right. People who say Babar developed under him dont realize Babar was being rated when he was playing U16 and U19, yes Mickey atleast didnt put him in odd batting positions. So credit where its due but Babar would still have become the player he is now irrespective of the coach he played under. Not a fan of Waqar as a coach but Babar was selected debuted under his tenure and same was the case with Haris Sohail if I am not wrong.
What was Babar Azam's averages under Waqar and what are they under Mickey ?
 
How?

By firing one of the worst failures?

We've reached new lows.
 
They did it a good few years ago with Julien Fountain and now he has applied and been interviewed for Bangladesh.
 
Definitely seems like it.

The fact, misbah is being touted as the front runner is very, very worrying.

I'd rather Waqar returns and is fully backed by the pcb this time, which may happen under Wasim and Co.
 
Mickey inherited a deplorable and unfit ODI and T20 team from Waqar who had us tottering in 9th and 7th in rankings. We finished 5th in the WC only missing out on SF qualification via NRR, we bagged an ICC 50 over trophy for first time since 1992, and are 1st in T20s.

My first point was regarding the test team which has factually lost everything post Misbah except series win against Aus in UAE and a 1-1 draw against Eng in Eng.

Versus top 10 teams, Mickey had a W/L ratio of 0.735 whereas the Pep Guardiola of cricket Waqar had ratio of 0.347 ! Under Waqar we crossed 300 twice but under Mickey we've done so 14 times ! Our RPO, bowling average and economy rates have also improved. How can you say that counts for nothing ?

Already agreed that in LOIs he did decently but if we compare the squad Mickey had in comparison to what we had in 2015 is just a huge difference. Waqar was also a mediocre coach but we cant seriously compare the batting and bowling talent of 2015 and 2017-19 which Pak has.

PSL is a rubbish second rate league. We are better off NOT using PSL for selections - see the failures of Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Faheem Ashraf, Rumman Raees and other PSL wonders at international level.

Why not take Hassan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Sharjeel Khan, Fakhar Zaman etc out as well.

Take out Fakhar Zaman and Hassan Ali for the CT 17 team, do you think there were other players who could have replicated what they did?

The names which I have mentioned do you think would have been playing for Pak if it wasnt for PSL.

It might be the worst league in the world but if shows talented players live and to the people and on that basis talented players get selected while they are teenagers and other players who were fading away in domestics than I think its doing a good job. Yes ideally it shouldnt be the case but when have unprofessional people and standard of domestics at low level than a talented player was rarely gonna be noticed.

You need to make up your mind either Mickey had a say in selections or he doesn't. Or does he get no credit for the good selections and all the blame for the bad ones ?

Lets assume what I believe as well is that he had a role in those selections but then again all those selections prove one point that PSL was only the sole criteria for Mickey's selections and he had the liberty for that short cut to see players which other coaches before him didnt. All the names I have mentioned above are the reason the outlook of the LOI side is different from 4 years ago along with emergence of Babar Azam and come back of Amir.

If he picked Usama Mir then you, Slog and others would've shouted that Mickey is showing favoritism to Karachi Kings players !

I have never said that and I never will if selection is on merit. If he didnt select him because he was thinking what people will say than its only further demonstration of his unprofessionalism and his emotions taking over his objective decision making


That was a bad call but fact is our unbeaten UAE Test record would be intact if Captain Useless scored 27 runs across those two close Abu Dhabi chases we lost.

However Sarfraz cannot play a responsible innings if his life depended on it yet he remains in his job (along with his Test average of 25 as captain) yet Mickey and Inzamam have been sacked ! Total injustice.

Completely agree Sarfaraz is neither fit nor a performer and has been poor in his captaincy as well.

What was Babar Azam's averages under Waqar and what are they under Mickey ?

Babar Azam's avg was 38 and Sr was of 89 which isnt bat but one has to realize they were his first 7 matches and it takes players time to settle. Mickey handled him brilliantly but its not like Mickey unearthed a star out of nowhere as everybody in cricket circles already knew about him.

Except from a few PSL youngsters Mickey havent unearthed any body and I am open to hear names if I am missing someone.
 
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We don't yet know who has and who hasn't applied. It would be foolish to speculate until we know who is in the running. Also, no I don't think letting Arthur go was a bad decision. It was a 50/50 decision. I don't think either way was going to be a bad decision. IF he was to be let go, now is the best time as we move into the WTC era and a new cycle for WC prep.
 
Coaching record in a pyjama league like PSL means nothing. What's relevant is a coach's international record and Dean Jones has not even coached a domestic team let alone an international team.

Agree he hasnt coached any international team but that doesnt mean he is poor at the job compared to MICKEY who had a good enough run.. MICKEY is stubborn to play genuine spinners and brought the test team to where it is now...

MICKEY had good spinners in his karachi side with usama mir and umerkhan and he didnt get them a chance in intl + asghar travelled with the team on couple of tours yet he didnt get a chance...

We have seen 4 seasons of PSL now and the track record shows that Deanos team is doing better than MICKEYs with less change of captains, with less international icon players..

Just compare the ISLU and Karachi team and u will see better bowlers, batsmen and allrounders in Karachi side...
 
It all depends on who they get as a replacement.

The reality is that if the new Head Coach does well, Mickey will soon be forgotten. If the new coach struggles, then the PCB faces plenty of stick.
 
We clearly don’t have a plan in place. If that was the case, we should have kept Mickey.
 
It all depends on who they get as a replacement.

The reality is that if the new Head Coach does well, Mickey will soon be forgotten. If the new coach struggles, then the PCB faces plenty of stick.

Just seems that the Arthur decision was a knee jerk reaction. Should have sounded out people privately before this.
 
You have to make the job attractive enough for the top coaches to apply, and I think the PCB have certainly underestimated the challenge of marketing the idea of being Pakistan coach.

Be that as it may, extending Arthur's contract would have been a reward for incompetence, as I just couldn't see any semblance of a plan to improve our test team under him. It was all empty rhetoric and mystifying selections over the course of the last three years.
 
You have to make the job attractive enough for the top coaches to apply, and I think the PCB have certainly underestimated the challenge of marketing the idea of being Pakistan coach.

Be that as it may, extending Arthur's contract would have been a reward for incompetence, as I just couldn't see any semblance of a plan to improve our test team under him. It was all empty rhetoric and mystifying selections over the course of the last three years.

Exactly, just because the PCB did not get a high profile applicant does not mean the decision to sack Mickey Arthur was incorrect. Arthur was given a full chance to present his case to the cricket committee but he failed to satisfy the committee with his answers and as us the professional accountability mechanism all around the world, he got shown the door as a result
 
Apart from the Champions Trophy fluke, we didn’t make any progress under Mickey.

We continued to be minnows in ODIs and our Test team has turned into a joke. Losing to Sri Lanka and New Zealand was unforgivable, and the lack of clarity regarding the selection of players for the World Cup exposed our lack of proper planning.

It was the right time for Mickey and PCB to part ways. It is indeed true that we are a mediocre side and we shouldn’t expect a coach to take us to the top, but Mickey failed to do the basics right.

Nevertheless, the more important decision would be to sack Sarfraz who is a complete disgrace and a bigger culprit than Mickey.

If Sarfraz stays as captain, it will clearly show that we have not made any progress in terms of adopting a more professional approach, and all this talk of PCB changing their ways is just for show.
 
It was a stupid reaction to a slow start to the WC. We let go of a coach who had helped Pakistan win a major tournament and put us back on top of the T20 ranking.

Now we have little options other then ex-players who always come with an agenda.

Sad to say but media and fans also players their part in getting us into this silly situation.

There are idiots out there who are still sharpening their knives for the captain.

Pakistani are sometimes their own worst enemies!
 
As a fan who prefers test cricket, Pakistan's test form under Mickey was rubbish and really angered me, so I don't think this is a terrrible decision.
 
Test team is WIP. We lost the backbone of the side with Younis and Misbah. Pakistan does not have a first class system which promotes players ready for test cricket. Our test players are developed by playing test cricket. That is why it’s is so dangerous for us to discard experienced and developed players.

It is rather unfair to blame MA for the transition that the test team is undergoing. We needed to be patience, think strategically and invest for the long term. Immaturity of fans and administrators means that we are always looking for short term fixes for longer term requirements.
 
Extended deadline to 26th August.

Seems the PCB is struggling to get interest from the candidates they wanted.
 
Just give Deano a chance please.
Misbah can be assistant headcoach or summit but nothing more.
 
Did Australia and South Africa shoot themselves in the foot too?
 
Apart from the Champions Trophy fluke, we didn’t make any progress under Mickey.

We continued to be minnows in ODIs and our Test team has turned into a joke. Losing to Sri Lanka and New Zealand was unforgivable, and the lack of clarity regarding the selection of players for the World Cup exposed our lack of proper planning.

It was the right time for Mickey and PCB to part ways. It is indeed true that we are a mediocre side and we shouldn’t expect a coach to take us to the top, but Mickey failed to do the basics right.

Nevertheless, the more important decision would be to sack Sarfraz who is a complete disgrace and a bigger culprit than Mickey.

If Sarfraz stays as captain, it will clearly show that we have not made any progress in terms of adopting a more professional approach, and all this talk of PCB changing their ways is just for show.

Well said.

Not sure why he gets hyped up by some here. Maybe because he was an angraiz and could speak great English in a good accent.

With the results he produced and the strategy many of the times, a desi coach would've been crucified by most folks here.
 
Test team is WIP. We lost the backbone of the side with Younis and Misbah. Pakistan does not have a first class system which promotes players ready for test cricket. Our test players are developed by playing test cricket. That is why it’s is so dangerous for us to discard experienced and developed players.

It is rather unfair to blame MA for the transition that the test team is undergoing. We needed to be patience, think strategically and invest for the long term. Immaturity of fans and administrators means that we are always looking for short term fixes for longer term requirements.

The test decline had started before Younis and Misbah retired. It was almost immediately after Mickey arthur got to work. We barely won a series against West Indies in UAE and got played off the park against an average NZ side
 
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