Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,825
Gardening? While Trevor Bayliss reacted to the inevitable post-match questions about his future by saying, if removed prematurely from his job, he would spend a bit more time in his garden, Mickey Arthur looked like a man who would no more enjoy time in his than he would a period in solitary confinement.
The Pakistan coach is one of life’s optimists; an ebullient, engaging character who wears his heart on his sleeve and is immersed in his job. Bayliss is a man of few words, a coach who sits back, observes and interferes reluctantly; Arthur is a conversationalist, who loves nothing more than talking cricket and, at least where cricket teams are concerned, is an interventionist, a trait that has brought him grief as well as success.
A camera trained on both coaches during the Lord’s Test would have produced contrasting footage: Bayliss is from the Duncan Fletcher school of coaching, outwardly expressionless to the point where you do not know whether his team is winning or losing, playing well or badly; with Arthur there is no second-guessing required as his face reveals all. The joy of winning, the pain of losing; everything is etched on his features. Not so much Fletcher as David “Bumble” Lloyd.
Whether he was on his feet, clapping with unbridled enthusiasm when Babar Azam reached his half-century — Arthur has made some typically bullish predictions about Babar’s future as a Test batsman — or turning to a colleague with a “what the f***?” expression when his captain fell into a schoolboy trap on the point of tea, or waving frantically to get his players to change tack on the third evening when Jos Buttler and Dominic Bess began to exert control, one look at Arthur was all that was needed to know whose team was on top.
There is a clear sense, on his third international assignment, that Arthur has found his calling. It was a brave move to accept the role, given the constraints with which Pakistan must deal compared with better-funded international teams. The inability to play at home, the exaggerated public reaction that accompanies every victory or defeat and the historical chaos that has surrounded selection makes coaching Pakistan a unique challenge. You do not need to be reminded of Bob Woolmer, who died of a heart attack during the 2007 World Cup, to know the pressurised environment in which the coach of Pakistan operates.
Arthur has not shied away from the challenge — although, given the fall-out from his time with Australia, when he was sacked on the eve of the 2013 Ashes, there was probably no other route back into international coaching than taking the kind of job that others would not. Whether he saw the move as a stepping stone or not, he has not regretted it for one moment. “It is the most invigorating job I’ve ever had,” he told me the day before the Lord’s Test began.
Arthur now has intimate knowledge of three contrasting cricketing cultures, making him knowledgeable and interesting about international dressing rooms in general. He was with South Africa between 2005 and 2010 and found a team that wanted direction and structure from its coach. When he was in charge of Australia, he found the culture more driven by the players, a difference he struggled to recognise initially and one that played a part in his downfall after the so-called “homework-gate” fiasco.
Having learnt from his time with Australia, he was determined to adapt his own style to the needs of the Pakistan players but they have had to adapt to his demands, too, a balance so far that seems to be working. Pakistan certainly looked well drilled and prepared for last week’s first Test, and the Champions Trophy victory last summer was against the odds, and reflected both on the changes that Arthur has wrought as well as the flair and talent that continue to come out of Pakistan, despite the challenges.
“We’ve tried to minimise the chaos within the things we can control, like selection,” he told me. “The selection panel works well and it is a lot more stable and consistent. Before, players were in and out and inevitably they began to play for themselves because they were scared of getting dropped. So it became a ‘me’ environment rather than a team environment. This dressing room is the best I’ve ever been involved in. They are a wonderful bunch of guys. They have great values and the respect is huge. I find it an extremely stimulating environment.
“With Australia, I was guilty of coming in and not sitting back and watching for a time. I was guilty of thinking I could run things just like I had in South Africa. That got me into trouble a bit, and I’ve learnt from that. When I came into this job I sat back for a while before implementing changes.”
Not surprisingly, perhaps, given the past reputation of some subcontinental teams, much of this work has concentrated on fitness and fielding. “Things reached a crescendo in Sydney [in January 2017]. Our one-day players had come out to give us fresh legs, but they were overweight. I took them on to the outfield to do some shuttle runs and it was embarrassing. That reflected on us as a coaching staff and that was the tipping point.
“Since then, everyone has bought in. We now have fitness criteria. I don’t care who you are, if you don’t meet the criteria, you don’t play. We have fitness tests every month and guys must meet their minimum standards. We have hammered them on fielding and, while there is a way to go, we have seen a huge improvement. The players are enjoying the work. They are loving it.”
At the moment it seems a happy combination: a South African who believes in discipline and structure learning from the free-form way that Pakistan players approach the game, and players accepting that, as far as fitness and fielding are concerned, there are no shortcuts to excellence. Yesterday, in these pages, we heard from a coach, Stuart Lancaster, who has found redemption after a bruising time with England. After being defenestrated by Cricket Australia, Arthur is cricket’s equivalent.
The 2017 Champions Trophy brought similar redemption and, if victory over England in this Test series would struggle to top that, in cricketing terms it would be just as significant an achievement. Along with his support staff, including Steve Rixon, the former Australia wicketkeeper, Grant Flower, the former Zimbabwe batsman, and Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan bowler, their job is to maintain the team’s focus and discipline.
The aftermath of the Champions Trophy, and the joy that accompanies significant wins, should be motivation enough. “That was amazing,” Arthur says. “It still makes the hair stand up thinking of it. Those three weeks of the Champions Trophy were the best three weeks of my coaching career. The reaction was incredible. It took Babar Azam four and a half hours to get to his house because his car couldn’t move for the crowds. Sarfraz [Ahmed] had 15,000 outside his house singing. I still get stopped and thanked wherever I go. It is a very rewarding and invigorating job and I hope I can do it for a while because we’ve only just scratched the surface.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/ebullient-mickey-arthur-has-revived-pakistan-8n0btkxpf
The Pakistan coach is one of life’s optimists; an ebullient, engaging character who wears his heart on his sleeve and is immersed in his job. Bayliss is a man of few words, a coach who sits back, observes and interferes reluctantly; Arthur is a conversationalist, who loves nothing more than talking cricket and, at least where cricket teams are concerned, is an interventionist, a trait that has brought him grief as well as success.
A camera trained on both coaches during the Lord’s Test would have produced contrasting footage: Bayliss is from the Duncan Fletcher school of coaching, outwardly expressionless to the point where you do not know whether his team is winning or losing, playing well or badly; with Arthur there is no second-guessing required as his face reveals all. The joy of winning, the pain of losing; everything is etched on his features. Not so much Fletcher as David “Bumble” Lloyd.
Whether he was on his feet, clapping with unbridled enthusiasm when Babar Azam reached his half-century — Arthur has made some typically bullish predictions about Babar’s future as a Test batsman — or turning to a colleague with a “what the f***?” expression when his captain fell into a schoolboy trap on the point of tea, or waving frantically to get his players to change tack on the third evening when Jos Buttler and Dominic Bess began to exert control, one look at Arthur was all that was needed to know whose team was on top.
There is a clear sense, on his third international assignment, that Arthur has found his calling. It was a brave move to accept the role, given the constraints with which Pakistan must deal compared with better-funded international teams. The inability to play at home, the exaggerated public reaction that accompanies every victory or defeat and the historical chaos that has surrounded selection makes coaching Pakistan a unique challenge. You do not need to be reminded of Bob Woolmer, who died of a heart attack during the 2007 World Cup, to know the pressurised environment in which the coach of Pakistan operates.
Arthur has not shied away from the challenge — although, given the fall-out from his time with Australia, when he was sacked on the eve of the 2013 Ashes, there was probably no other route back into international coaching than taking the kind of job that others would not. Whether he saw the move as a stepping stone or not, he has not regretted it for one moment. “It is the most invigorating job I’ve ever had,” he told me the day before the Lord’s Test began.
Arthur now has intimate knowledge of three contrasting cricketing cultures, making him knowledgeable and interesting about international dressing rooms in general. He was with South Africa between 2005 and 2010 and found a team that wanted direction and structure from its coach. When he was in charge of Australia, he found the culture more driven by the players, a difference he struggled to recognise initially and one that played a part in his downfall after the so-called “homework-gate” fiasco.
Having learnt from his time with Australia, he was determined to adapt his own style to the needs of the Pakistan players but they have had to adapt to his demands, too, a balance so far that seems to be working. Pakistan certainly looked well drilled and prepared for last week’s first Test, and the Champions Trophy victory last summer was against the odds, and reflected both on the changes that Arthur has wrought as well as the flair and talent that continue to come out of Pakistan, despite the challenges.
“We’ve tried to minimise the chaos within the things we can control, like selection,” he told me. “The selection panel works well and it is a lot more stable and consistent. Before, players were in and out and inevitably they began to play for themselves because they were scared of getting dropped. So it became a ‘me’ environment rather than a team environment. This dressing room is the best I’ve ever been involved in. They are a wonderful bunch of guys. They have great values and the respect is huge. I find it an extremely stimulating environment.
“With Australia, I was guilty of coming in and not sitting back and watching for a time. I was guilty of thinking I could run things just like I had in South Africa. That got me into trouble a bit, and I’ve learnt from that. When I came into this job I sat back for a while before implementing changes.”
Not surprisingly, perhaps, given the past reputation of some subcontinental teams, much of this work has concentrated on fitness and fielding. “Things reached a crescendo in Sydney [in January 2017]. Our one-day players had come out to give us fresh legs, but they were overweight. I took them on to the outfield to do some shuttle runs and it was embarrassing. That reflected on us as a coaching staff and that was the tipping point.
“Since then, everyone has bought in. We now have fitness criteria. I don’t care who you are, if you don’t meet the criteria, you don’t play. We have fitness tests every month and guys must meet their minimum standards. We have hammered them on fielding and, while there is a way to go, we have seen a huge improvement. The players are enjoying the work. They are loving it.”
At the moment it seems a happy combination: a South African who believes in discipline and structure learning from the free-form way that Pakistan players approach the game, and players accepting that, as far as fitness and fielding are concerned, there are no shortcuts to excellence. Yesterday, in these pages, we heard from a coach, Stuart Lancaster, who has found redemption after a bruising time with England. After being defenestrated by Cricket Australia, Arthur is cricket’s equivalent.
The 2017 Champions Trophy brought similar redemption and, if victory over England in this Test series would struggle to top that, in cricketing terms it would be just as significant an achievement. Along with his support staff, including Steve Rixon, the former Australia wicketkeeper, Grant Flower, the former Zimbabwe batsman, and Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan bowler, their job is to maintain the team’s focus and discipline.
The aftermath of the Champions Trophy, and the joy that accompanies significant wins, should be motivation enough. “That was amazing,” Arthur says. “It still makes the hair stand up thinking of it. Those three weeks of the Champions Trophy were the best three weeks of my coaching career. The reaction was incredible. It took Babar Azam four and a half hours to get to his house because his car couldn’t move for the crowds. Sarfraz [Ahmed] had 15,000 outside his house singing. I still get stopped and thanked wherever I go. It is a very rewarding and invigorating job and I hope I can do it for a while because we’ve only just scratched the surface.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/ebullient-mickey-arthur-has-revived-pakistan-8n0btkxpf
He has bought some consistency since being the coach. Long may it continue.
. Only a Pak coach like Miandad or Inzi would accept such a stupid answer.
