- Joined
- Oct 2, 2004
- Runs
- 217,855
"My priority will be to have an attacking team that can dominate other teams" : Misbah-ul-Haq
The 45-year-old Misbah, who retired from international cricket in May 2017, said: “It is very humbling for me to join a select group of some of the very best to have coached the Pakistan national sides in the past. It is an honour and more than that, a massive responsibility as we live and breathe cricket.
“I know expectations are high, but I am absolutely ready and up for the task otherwise I would not have thrown my name in the hat for one of the most challenging and coveted roles in Pakistan cricket.
“We have some of the most talented and exciting cricketers, and I will like to help them train and prepare in such a way that they can play intelligently, smartly and fearlessly. I am aware this will require a change in the dressing room culture but if we have to compete consistently at the highest level, we have to embrace these modern day requirements.
“We need to understand this is a performance-oriented world and only those Pakistan players have thrived in the past who have taken the pride in donning the star and crest on their chests by delivering every time they have stepped on to the field.
“That’s the way I have played my cricket all through my career and this will not change in my new role.
“I am excited to once again have someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Waqar Younis in my corner as a bowling coach. We have exciting young fast bowlers in our ranks and there is no better person than Waqar to transform them into modern day stars.
“Both Waqar and I had a candid and frank discussion and we discussed and agreed on a number of things, including roles and responsibilities as well as how to take things forward.
“As I prepare to begin a new phase in my career, I want to thank my family, friends, former team-mates, the PCB and my club, departmental and franchise sides for supporting me in my journey.”
Press conference:
"I would like to thank the PCB for showing confidence and trust in me. I have been given two very important responsibilities, of the Chief Selector and Head Coach"
"All that I have achieved as a cricketer and this position that I've reached wouldn't have been possible without Pakistan's name. Whatever I am today, I gained respect in cricket etc. but if you remove Pakistan's name, there won't be anything left. So I would like to thank everyone. It's a big honour for me. When you have power and get such a big decision-making responsibility, it's a test for you and you need to deliver with trustworthiness and fairness which isn't easy to achieve"
"What I will say is that the way I played my cricket and gave everything for Pakistan, I will try to give whatever I have for Pakistan in these roles. I will put my full effort and energy in these roles for the betterment of Pakistan cricket, to improve our rankings and for the whole setup. The most important thing that we need to bring in is professionalism. From top to bottom and bottom to top. I will try to fulfil my responsibilities and I would like to thank everyone who supported me throughout my career and those who convinced and motivated me for this work. Hopefully with everyone's support, I will try to do my best in this role"
"I believe there has always been some confusion in these spheres regarding the words aggressive and defensive. I believe that your strategy is always based on your resources. You try to have resources via which you can easily defeat other teams and make them submit, that is the ideal scenario and as a coach, I will try to have a team that can play aggressive cricket and defeat other teams easily with attacking cricket. But at certain times, you have to assess your strength and other teams' strengths and amend your strategy accordingly"
"I will give the example of the World Cup. Before the World Cup, everyone said that England are playing the ultimate modern cricket and that no one can compete with their batsmen and bowling's dimensions. In the World Cup, till the semis, NZ were the other way around, playing with a conservative approach. Their batsmen weren't clicking and they made their strategy accordingly, depending on their resources. At the end, what was the result? Tie. Super over was also a tie and ultimately the decision was made in an unfortunate way"
"My priority will be to have an attacking team that can dominate other teams and that's the other way forward, but at certain times, you have to look at your strategy and amend it accordingly"
"I have handled criticism while playing cricket for 17 years. The best thing I can do is to listen to criticism and if someone is offering a better alternative. I believe that you should have the ability to improve yourself, and you should also have the confidence to deal with irrelevant comments"
"The practice has been that the final authority regarding playing XIs is with the captain. As a Head Coach and Chief Selector, one can give his view but the captain should get the choice of the final playing XI and I am clear on that. You can debate and sit down, or you can convince the captain about something but the ultimate decision is with the captain. But I will have responsibility as well"
"I have done lots of work with Waqar bhai, with the Pakistan team and also in PSL. We know each other and we have professionalism, he doesn't interfere in my domain and I don't interfere in his. He's clear already and we have talked. The Head Coach gives the direction but the bowlers' training is in the bowling coach's hands. The plans and what I want from them and how we move forward is obviously my decision. Everyone knows what a bowler he is and I don't think we could have gotten a better option than him, I have no doubt in this matter and I don't think there will be any issues. We know our limits and we are professional individuals"
"Since so many years, we have been crying about the structure not giving us that level of quality we need and there is a big gap between FC and Test cricket. We need to do some things for betterment. Positives and negatives also come in that, including negatives with lesser players. Some who would've been employed by departments will lose their jobs. But at the same time, competition levels will go up and automatically I think there will be quite a lot of improvement on that front. Let's see how this system works and if we can run it professionally then I think it will do a lot of good for Pakistan cricket"
"Sarfaraz has worked hard at the camp and has improved his fitness, we will keep all these things under consideration and I will meet the Chairman etc. over the next week or so and we will make the required decisions"
"I debuted in 2001 and from 2002, I have been leading some team or the other at lower levels and then later, Pakistan team, A teams, etc. The key factor of man management requires you to keep an equal relationship with everyone and that's the only thing that can make you successful and you get respect within the team. When you have a standard and you draw a line, players can be within the line or beyond, doesn't matter who it is. That's how we can move forward, you have control and everyone respects you as well"
"You can't make a prediction about anything. But for example we suffered in Test cricket since 2017 when myself and Younis Khan retired, the same happened with SL. That was the big factor and Pakistan had to rebuild. So Test cricket is the priority, if we improve in Test cricket then automatically you will improve in 50 overs. The more good players you have in Test cricket, the more they will be able to perform in shorter version and win matches. So you have to pay a lot of attention to these things. It's not easy, being a selector, being fair with everyone, observing attitudes, temperament, fitness, then you select players"
"I always said even when I was captain, that we're not consistent, and that's in terms of our routines, performance and training. One day fielding is outstanding, next day it isn't. Once we have discipline and professionalism in all aspects, your food and fitness and routine, then when you go inside with the same energy level every day then you will see results. I want to see the team at a high standard all the time and once you don't standardise roles and routines, it's difficult and that's what I will focus on, to try and make our team professional, as we see with England, Australia, India etc."
"You should look at players on the basis of how long they can win matches for the country and be top performers, if they are physically fit. These players can play at the top level and have the right to do so. When you have a 24 year old performing well with an upward graph and a 34 year old performing OK also but with a downward curve, then you can compare. If a player can serve Pakistan for 2-3 years, he has the right to play"
"All players can get injuries like muscle pulls etc., no matter how fit they are. But yes we do have a problem and there is no need to hide it. If we train only keeping fitness tests in mind then that is wrong. We have this type of mindset occasionally, the fitness test is coming up so some do training on an emergency basis and once it's cleared, forget about it. So my policy on this is clear, the standards should be maintained and every 2-3 days players need to be checked, to see where fat levels are and where the fitness levels are and where they are going. This will bring in discipline. I need to be fit all the time, a test can happen anytime, that should be the mentality"
"Fielding relates with fitness. If you have fitter players in the field, they will be quicker, they will take catches instead of 'good try' so there is a simple psyche behind this. Of course, we will try to improve this"
"There is a bit of misconception regarding PSL here, our top level cricket is PSL and you mostly get T20 players from that. If you have a performer in all formats then at PSL you check his temperament, how he deals with cameras and crowds so he can be selected for other formats, but purely on the basis of PSL you can't pick players for Tests or ODIs"
"Regarding retirements, we've had discussions about this and players should take the board into confidence before announcing retirements. Without asking, they shouldn't do so. Whether it's Azhar Ali or Mohammad Amir, it's there own decision and what they do is up to them now"
"Regarding the squads (for domestic cricket), believe me and Wasim Khan is the witness for this, we would start the meeting at 10am and finish at 10pm. It's very unfortunate that when we were looking at the list of top batsmen, when you reach #7 of 8, the average dropped below 30. So for that, we had to look at players' performances over the past few seasons. Someone might have had an average of 24, but we looked at it age-wise. If the player was on the way up season by season, even with one aberration in between, we tried to give them a chance. So these teams were made with lots of difficulty. Out of 390+ players, we had to pick 190 and there were no obvious choices with players with averages of 24-25. It was difficult and we tried our best and kept Pakistan in the picture and did the work with honesty, seeing what can help Pakistan in future"
"With regards to Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq were previously performing then you can't just put them aside and start trying to groom other players. But players did get chances in between whenever there was an opening and they had to grab that. You try to keep these players around the team and prepare them mentally and technically so they can replace players in the team. The biggest reason for Pakistan's struggles was that when you lose two major players together then it's difficult. We've got some good players and they are performing in other formats. Haris Sohail and Babar Azam are performing but you can still see the gap. We will try our best and I will put a lot of focus on this, that we have proper replacements so that if any player misses out then we have backup available"
"We need to understand that for an all-rounder, he needs to be complete in one aspect. Either he should be a full bowler, or capable of batting in the top 6. When there's a pressure situation, a half bowler and half batsman becomes tough for a team. Unfortunately, such players are less in Pakistan. There's 2-3 players like Faheem Ashraf who couldn't deliver, but if he does more work, he can do well, then there's Aamer Yamin and Amad Butt. Our resources are limited. They haven't gotten too many chances so we will try our best to develop them"
The 45-year-old Misbah, who retired from international cricket in May 2017, said: “It is very humbling for me to join a select group of some of the very best to have coached the Pakistan national sides in the past. It is an honour and more than that, a massive responsibility as we live and breathe cricket.
“I know expectations are high, but I am absolutely ready and up for the task otherwise I would not have thrown my name in the hat for one of the most challenging and coveted roles in Pakistan cricket.
“We have some of the most talented and exciting cricketers, and I will like to help them train and prepare in such a way that they can play intelligently, smartly and fearlessly. I am aware this will require a change in the dressing room culture but if we have to compete consistently at the highest level, we have to embrace these modern day requirements.
“We need to understand this is a performance-oriented world and only those Pakistan players have thrived in the past who have taken the pride in donning the star and crest on their chests by delivering every time they have stepped on to the field.
“That’s the way I have played my cricket all through my career and this will not change in my new role.
“I am excited to once again have someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Waqar Younis in my corner as a bowling coach. We have exciting young fast bowlers in our ranks and there is no better person than Waqar to transform them into modern day stars.
“Both Waqar and I had a candid and frank discussion and we discussed and agreed on a number of things, including roles and responsibilities as well as how to take things forward.
“As I prepare to begin a new phase in my career, I want to thank my family, friends, former team-mates, the PCB and my club, departmental and franchise sides for supporting me in my journey.”
Press conference:
"I would like to thank the PCB for showing confidence and trust in me. I have been given two very important responsibilities, of the Chief Selector and Head Coach"
"All that I have achieved as a cricketer and this position that I've reached wouldn't have been possible without Pakistan's name. Whatever I am today, I gained respect in cricket etc. but if you remove Pakistan's name, there won't be anything left. So I would like to thank everyone. It's a big honour for me. When you have power and get such a big decision-making responsibility, it's a test for you and you need to deliver with trustworthiness and fairness which isn't easy to achieve"
"What I will say is that the way I played my cricket and gave everything for Pakistan, I will try to give whatever I have for Pakistan in these roles. I will put my full effort and energy in these roles for the betterment of Pakistan cricket, to improve our rankings and for the whole setup. The most important thing that we need to bring in is professionalism. From top to bottom and bottom to top. I will try to fulfil my responsibilities and I would like to thank everyone who supported me throughout my career and those who convinced and motivated me for this work. Hopefully with everyone's support, I will try to do my best in this role"
"I believe there has always been some confusion in these spheres regarding the words aggressive and defensive. I believe that your strategy is always based on your resources. You try to have resources via which you can easily defeat other teams and make them submit, that is the ideal scenario and as a coach, I will try to have a team that can play aggressive cricket and defeat other teams easily with attacking cricket. But at certain times, you have to assess your strength and other teams' strengths and amend your strategy accordingly"
"I will give the example of the World Cup. Before the World Cup, everyone said that England are playing the ultimate modern cricket and that no one can compete with their batsmen and bowling's dimensions. In the World Cup, till the semis, NZ were the other way around, playing with a conservative approach. Their batsmen weren't clicking and they made their strategy accordingly, depending on their resources. At the end, what was the result? Tie. Super over was also a tie and ultimately the decision was made in an unfortunate way"
"My priority will be to have an attacking team that can dominate other teams and that's the other way forward, but at certain times, you have to look at your strategy and amend it accordingly"
"I have handled criticism while playing cricket for 17 years. The best thing I can do is to listen to criticism and if someone is offering a better alternative. I believe that you should have the ability to improve yourself, and you should also have the confidence to deal with irrelevant comments"
"The practice has been that the final authority regarding playing XIs is with the captain. As a Head Coach and Chief Selector, one can give his view but the captain should get the choice of the final playing XI and I am clear on that. You can debate and sit down, or you can convince the captain about something but the ultimate decision is with the captain. But I will have responsibility as well"
"I have done lots of work with Waqar bhai, with the Pakistan team and also in PSL. We know each other and we have professionalism, he doesn't interfere in my domain and I don't interfere in his. He's clear already and we have talked. The Head Coach gives the direction but the bowlers' training is in the bowling coach's hands. The plans and what I want from them and how we move forward is obviously my decision. Everyone knows what a bowler he is and I don't think we could have gotten a better option than him, I have no doubt in this matter and I don't think there will be any issues. We know our limits and we are professional individuals"
"Since so many years, we have been crying about the structure not giving us that level of quality we need and there is a big gap between FC and Test cricket. We need to do some things for betterment. Positives and negatives also come in that, including negatives with lesser players. Some who would've been employed by departments will lose their jobs. But at the same time, competition levels will go up and automatically I think there will be quite a lot of improvement on that front. Let's see how this system works and if we can run it professionally then I think it will do a lot of good for Pakistan cricket"
"Sarfaraz has worked hard at the camp and has improved his fitness, we will keep all these things under consideration and I will meet the Chairman etc. over the next week or so and we will make the required decisions"
"I debuted in 2001 and from 2002, I have been leading some team or the other at lower levels and then later, Pakistan team, A teams, etc. The key factor of man management requires you to keep an equal relationship with everyone and that's the only thing that can make you successful and you get respect within the team. When you have a standard and you draw a line, players can be within the line or beyond, doesn't matter who it is. That's how we can move forward, you have control and everyone respects you as well"
"You can't make a prediction about anything. But for example we suffered in Test cricket since 2017 when myself and Younis Khan retired, the same happened with SL. That was the big factor and Pakistan had to rebuild. So Test cricket is the priority, if we improve in Test cricket then automatically you will improve in 50 overs. The more good players you have in Test cricket, the more they will be able to perform in shorter version and win matches. So you have to pay a lot of attention to these things. It's not easy, being a selector, being fair with everyone, observing attitudes, temperament, fitness, then you select players"
"I always said even when I was captain, that we're not consistent, and that's in terms of our routines, performance and training. One day fielding is outstanding, next day it isn't. Once we have discipline and professionalism in all aspects, your food and fitness and routine, then when you go inside with the same energy level every day then you will see results. I want to see the team at a high standard all the time and once you don't standardise roles and routines, it's difficult and that's what I will focus on, to try and make our team professional, as we see with England, Australia, India etc."
"You should look at players on the basis of how long they can win matches for the country and be top performers, if they are physically fit. These players can play at the top level and have the right to do so. When you have a 24 year old performing well with an upward graph and a 34 year old performing OK also but with a downward curve, then you can compare. If a player can serve Pakistan for 2-3 years, he has the right to play"
"All players can get injuries like muscle pulls etc., no matter how fit they are. But yes we do have a problem and there is no need to hide it. If we train only keeping fitness tests in mind then that is wrong. We have this type of mindset occasionally, the fitness test is coming up so some do training on an emergency basis and once it's cleared, forget about it. So my policy on this is clear, the standards should be maintained and every 2-3 days players need to be checked, to see where fat levels are and where the fitness levels are and where they are going. This will bring in discipline. I need to be fit all the time, a test can happen anytime, that should be the mentality"
"Fielding relates with fitness. If you have fitter players in the field, they will be quicker, they will take catches instead of 'good try' so there is a simple psyche behind this. Of course, we will try to improve this"
"There is a bit of misconception regarding PSL here, our top level cricket is PSL and you mostly get T20 players from that. If you have a performer in all formats then at PSL you check his temperament, how he deals with cameras and crowds so he can be selected for other formats, but purely on the basis of PSL you can't pick players for Tests or ODIs"
"Regarding retirements, we've had discussions about this and players should take the board into confidence before announcing retirements. Without asking, they shouldn't do so. Whether it's Azhar Ali or Mohammad Amir, it's there own decision and what they do is up to them now"
"Regarding the squads (for domestic cricket), believe me and Wasim Khan is the witness for this, we would start the meeting at 10am and finish at 10pm. It's very unfortunate that when we were looking at the list of top batsmen, when you reach #7 of 8, the average dropped below 30. So for that, we had to look at players' performances over the past few seasons. Someone might have had an average of 24, but we looked at it age-wise. If the player was on the way up season by season, even with one aberration in between, we tried to give them a chance. So these teams were made with lots of difficulty. Out of 390+ players, we had to pick 190 and there were no obvious choices with players with averages of 24-25. It was difficult and we tried our best and kept Pakistan in the picture and did the work with honesty, seeing what can help Pakistan in future"
"With regards to Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq were previously performing then you can't just put them aside and start trying to groom other players. But players did get chances in between whenever there was an opening and they had to grab that. You try to keep these players around the team and prepare them mentally and technically so they can replace players in the team. The biggest reason for Pakistan's struggles was that when you lose two major players together then it's difficult. We've got some good players and they are performing in other formats. Haris Sohail and Babar Azam are performing but you can still see the gap. We will try our best and I will put a lot of focus on this, that we have proper replacements so that if any player misses out then we have backup available"
"We need to understand that for an all-rounder, he needs to be complete in one aspect. Either he should be a full bowler, or capable of batting in the top 6. When there's a pressure situation, a half bowler and half batsman becomes tough for a team. Unfortunately, such players are less in Pakistan. There's 2-3 players like Faheem Ashraf who couldn't deliver, but if he does more work, he can do well, then there's Aamer Yamin and Amad Butt. Our resources are limited. They haven't gotten too many chances so we will try our best to develop them"
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