POTW : Markhor

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Tough question asked in the poll for best Pakistan Coach and a good reply (as always) by Markhor!

Congratulation [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION]

I'm gonna go for Mickey Arthur.

Bob Woolmer was a terrific coach who brought badly needed stability to after years of turmoil. We never lost a home Test series whilst our ODI team was strong with wins against England, India away, Sri Lanka away and a whitewash in West Indies. He also had a great eye for talent whilst getting the best out of players like Inzamam, Yousuf, Younis, Afridi, Butt, Akmal, Naved and Malik.

However not being able to win an ICC tournament, and the way the 2007 WC ended was a huge disappointment. That wasn't entirely Woolmer's fault - the two goons Akhtar and Asif were too chicken to take a drug test so faked injuries to avoid selection, robbing Bob of two of his premier pacers.

Arthur inherited a team that had nowhere near as many big names as the 2004-07 side did. We were tottering at 9th in the ODI rankings and 7th in the T20 rankings having been dumped out of the group stages of the WT20. Arthur hasn't had any international series at home. The fitness and fielding culture he inherited was deplorable and he had an extremely tough touring schedule in his first year.

However he has tolerated no crap and has instilled discipline into this team. Our fielding hss markedly improved and his development of young players has been outstanding. Winning the Champions Trophy with a weak squad on paper was a fantastic achievement and no accident. His tactical nous, encouragement of a fearless attitude and a great understanding with captain Sarfraz brought it about.

Yes results other than the CT triumph may not seem special on paper but the work he's doing behind the scenes will pay off. Even then, we drew with England in a superb series, chased 300 in England for the first time ever, beat West Indies in all formats home and away including a first ever Test triumph in the Caribbean, won an ODI in Australia for the first time since 2005 and whitewashed Sri Lanka 8-0 in the ODI and T20 series recently.

Arthur's contract should be extended to the 2023 WC whilst Bob Woolmer should have the NCA named after him.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Good post.Deserved POTW.

 

[Syed1]

best poster on PP.... I do not agree with majority of this post though.

 

[CricFan2012]

Third best poster on this forums, always a treat to read knowledgable, easy to read, no clear agenda posts, congrats Markhor

 

[babajee]

Potw as soon as i read it.

Great post as always

 

[shaz619]

Congrats, great post although I'd have thought Markhor's pick would be Bob going by his posts over the years although Mickey had not come around until now, for me he has a fair bit to do before being compared to Bob Woolmer.

 

[Hasan123]

Brilliant post. Deserved POTW.

 

[hafizexpress]

Third best poster on this forums, always a treat to read knowledgable, easy to read, no clear agenda posts, congrats Markhor

Who are your top two posters I'm curious

 

[CricFan2012]

Who are your top two posters I'm curious

Mamoon and SIF

 

[DRsohail]

top posters and throughly agreed with his post except the suggestion of NCA named after woolmer..

 

[yasir]

Congrats [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION], he is one of the quality poster both in Cricket and Timepass section. There are few posters, I almost always stop and read their comments in a particular thread, he is one of them!!

 

[Major]

great poster.

enjoy reading his post in the time pass section

 

[Abid Z]

Good post. Agree with every word.

 

[UN talkz]

Agreed... Great post

 

[Pete Rose]

well deserved.
i wish to see [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] write an equally fitting obituary for the same period.

 

[Last Monetarist]

Great poster, arguably the most knowledgeable on the forum. Unfortunately I don't agree with the sentiment of the POTW. The wounds from losing a series to Sri Lanka are still pretty raw and I think Arthur has been fairly poor in his management of the test team (2 test matches against England aside).

 

[backfootpunch]

well done, I'm also glad I nominated this as POTW because it is richly deserved nice one [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION]

 

[Saj]

Good choice.

 

[CadPakFan]

Well deserved, great post!

 

[Mamoon]

well deserved.
i wish to see [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] write an equally fitting obituary for the same period.

Thanks. To summarize my thoughts: he made some good points and I largely agree that Arthur has been our best coach so far, but his outlook is too positive for my liking and he has ignored the fact that we have been served many charitable wins. Nonetheless, tougher and grimmer tests lie ahead for us, but results are not always the best measure of the impact of a coach.

Also, I suspect that a reality check is round the corner because some of our folks have become too big for their shoes because of the recent success of the team.

 

[Pete Rose]

Thanks. To summarize my thoughts: he made some good points and I largely agree that Arthur has been our best coach so far, but his outlook is too positive for my liking and he has ignored the fact that we have been served many charitable wins. Nonetheless, tougher and grimmer tests lie ahead for us, but results are not always the best measure of the impact of a coach.

Also, I suspect that a reality check is round the corner because some of our folks have become too big for their shoes because of the recent success of the team.

Yeah I can agree with most of this. My primary critique of him is not benching yk/misbah with the Australian tour on the horizon and his continued humoring fof malik/hafeez in the odi team. Still i suppose that would have been too much to do for any coach.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Yeah I can agree with most of this. My primary critique of him is not benching yk/misbah with the Australian tour on the horizon and his continued humoring fof malik/hafeez in the odi team. Still i suppose that would have been too much to do for any coach.

Don't think he had enough authority for that at the time.

 

[hadi123]

Great post answering a tough question.

 

[big_gamer007]

VEry good poster like his posts in TP..

 

[Bilal7]

Congrats! Well deserved.