How much more can Pakistan cricket be damaged?

[Junaids]

If you go back to the Mickey Arthur era:

1. T20i - Pakistan was the world's number 1 team.
2. ODI - Pakistan missed the final four of the World Cup on net run rate.
3. Tests: After having held the Number 1 slot, his ageing team had to be overhauled and his last Test eleven contained 3 players aged 30-33 and 8 players aged 20-30. They competed quite well in Australia, England and South Africa.

Pakistan was building a team and a squad, and was already competitive.

Fast forward two years and the team is a mess. The white ball teams are now a joke, with the team consisting of a mixture of geriatrics and babies, and the same formula is being used in Tests too.

I acknowledge that Mohammad Wasim has replaced Misbah as Chief Selector, but the Misbah-Waqar Disease is all-pervasive and is wrecking any attempt to build a team.

What is the Misbah-Waqar Disease?

It is a tendency to ignore merit. Azhar Ali was appointed Test captain after averaging 12.12 away in the previous two years, and we have seen a bunch of kids with no credentials selected in every format of the game as fast bowlers.

Misbah's tenture has now gone from one World Test Championship cycle to the next. I would expect him to now have a conveyer belt effect in place, with the oldest players being replaced by younger men, just as Tom Blundell now replaces BJ Watling in the New Zealand team and Kyle Jamieson broke through in the last cycle.

But in reality the opposite is happening.

Fawad Alam and Yasir Shah had been discarded but are now core players in the Test team, even though they fail more often than they succeed.

And therein lies the other aspect of Misbah-Waqar Disease.

Vendettas.

If you are Mohammad Amir, good luck being selected. Misbah-Waqar Disease requires inferior players to be picked because they suck up to their seniors, even if those seniors are incompetent buffoons.

I actually despair of Pakistan cricket. I don't agree with [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] that there is no talent.

What there is is no vision. Teams don't get picked currently with a Vision of building a team to compete over the next 4 year cycle. They get picked according to which geriatric batsman can do a job today, and which fast bowling infant has not upset the Big Bosses.

 

[sweep_shot]

Things have gone downhill definitely.

I think Pakistan were doing better under Arthur.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

For once we agree. Under Mickey's tenure it definitely felt like there was a vision in-place. Yes there were some egregious omissions like Fawad, but you definitely felt like they were trying to build a team.

There was consistency in selection. Five new guys weren't being selected in every series. For the most part, selections were logical. In-between there till Rixon was on-board Pakistan went from one of the worst fielding sides in the world to one of the best. And I was always a fan of Mickey's brutal honesty towards players he didn't think were doing well enough.

Now were Pakistan consistent? No. But they definitely experienced more success under Mickey than they have under anyone this century.

But now it seems all the positive ideas that Mickey brought on-board have been thrown out the window.

 

[MesonK]

As simple as it gets.

Start picking players from domestic instead of trying on these colorful "nau-jawans" from PSL. Why do not we have a mathematical model of selecting players on basis of their deeply filtered domestic stats instead of opinions of corrupt to the core selection committee.

 

[Ahmad-GERMANFC]

Lol at test. After having held “#1 spot”.

Mickey didn’t hold it. He just happened to be there for coronation.

And if whitewashes in australiaa, new zeal and and South Africa are competitive for you then god help us

 

[Bhaijaan]

Mickey is a terrific small team coach.

Pakistan with their small team mentality definitely miss him big time.

 

[Rafa]

No changes will be made till the T20 WC so have to stick with these guys and hope for the best.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Mickey is a terrific small team coach.

Pakistan with their small team mentality definitely miss him big time.

I wouldn't call the South Africa of the 2000s a "small team".

That is where Mickey earned his notoriety and alot of the South African credit him for their development.

Unfortunately since then Mickey has just not had the best luck as a coach but that is not a reflection of his coaching ability. The boorish Aussies were never going to be coached by anyone other than an Australian. And after seeing the Amazon Prime series 'The Test' I can see why. With Pakistan he actually elevated a team that was languishing at the near bottom of the ODI rankings and changed the way they approached their cricket to a great extent until he was prematurely sent packing. Whereas, with Sri Lanka, you could have put Gene Hackman's character from Hoosiers in there and they would still be an utterly terrible team.

 

[Bhaijaan]

I wouldn't call the South Africa of the 2000s a "small team".

That is where Mickey earned his notoriety and alot of the South African credit him for their development.

Unfortunately since then Mickey has just not had the best luck as a coach but that is not a reflection of his coaching ability. The boorish Aussies were never going to be coached by anyone other than an Australian. And after seeing the Amazon Prime series 'The Test' I can see why. With Pakistan he actually elevated a team that was languishing at the near bottom of the ODI rankings and changed the way they approached their cricket to a great extent until he was prematurely sent packing. Whereas, with Sri Lanka, you could have put Gene Hackman's character from Hoosiers in there and they would still be an utterly terrible team.

A big team coach cannot pass the test on basis of Win% only. He has to earn #1 test rank and win a white ball trophy.

Big team goals are different.

Mickey is not a big team coach.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

A big team coach cannot pass the test on basis of Win% only. He has to earn #1 test rank and win a white ball trophy.

Big team goals are different.

Mickey is not a big team coach.

And what are those goals exactly? Mickey turned South Africa from a reasonably okay team (that had declined significantly since the 90s) to world-beaters. South Africa DID earn the #1 rank in both formats during his tenure. He developed/took a chance on many young players who went on to serve as the nucleus of the team for years to come. Under him they also won their first series in Australia, drew in India, won in England and went on an incredible unbeaten 9 series run.

With the exception of an ODI trophy, these are all big team goals that they achieved very successfully under him. So you're wrong. Mickey is very much a big team coach. But that doesn't mean he will necessarily have the same success with small teams that happen to have rotten systems.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Our white ball future is very dark

In tests we will always be competitive-ish!

I'm afraid it is a matter of deep flaws / not being good enough and sacking of Misbah/WY won't fix anything.