"Sarfaraz Ahmed was a very popular leader inside the changing room" : Mickey Arthur

[MenInG]

Former Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has stated that he enjoyed working with ex-Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed during his stint with the Pakistan side.

Arthur, who was the coach of the team from 2016 to 2019, termed Sarfaraz Ahmed as a popular leader inside the Pakistan dressing room.

In an interview with Aamir Sohail on his YouTube channel, Arthur discussed Sarfaraz Ahmed’s personality traits and looked back at his association with Pakistan cricket. He said:

"I was very privileged to work with Graeme Smith, Michael Clarke and Graeme Smith. They were very good leader of men. Sarfaraz had something I hadn’t seen before. He had the ability to be an authoritative voice, like a disciplinarian on the field, but when he came into the dressing room, he transformed into a brother to the guys. He had that."

"People say what happened on the field, like his movements, but they didn’t see the other side of Sarfaraz in the dressing room. He was a very popular leader inside the changing room, and I loved working with him."

In his very first ICC tournament as captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed led the team to glory as Pakistan hammered India by a mammoth margin of 180 runs in the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Sarfaraz Ahmed had become a national hero in his country. However, the joy was short-lived as Pakistan’s performance under him and Sarfaraz Ahmed’s own personal form started dipping soon after.

After Pakistan were hammered 3-0 in the T20Is against Sri Lanka last year, not only was Sarfaraz Ahmed sacked as captain but he was also dropped as a player.

Sarfaraz Ahmed was recalled during the England tour earlier this year and will also feature in the three-match T20I series against New Zealand to be held this month.

Sarfaraz Ahmed led Pakistan in 13 Tests, out of which they lost eight, won four and drew one. The wicket-keeper batsman struggled with the bat during this tenure, averaging merely 25.81.

He had better numbers in ODIs, winning 28 and losing 20 out of the 50 matches that he led in. With the bat in these games, Sarfaraz Ahmed averaged 32.16.

Sarfaraz Ahmed also captained Pakistan in 37 T20Is and has an incredible record, winning 29 and losing only 8. He scored 521 runs with a best of 89 not out.

https://cricket.yahoo.net/news/sarfaraz-ahmed-very-popular-leader-044017855

 

[Mamoon]

Sarfraz might not show it in public, but deep down, he must be very dejected and regretful over how his career has gone off the rails within 2 years after the highest of highs (for a Pakistani cricketer).

He had Pakistan cricket at his feet after the Champions Trophy and could have captained the side for longer than Misbah did across formats, but his lack of confidence in his own capabilities cost him dearly.

He continued to hide in the batting lineup in Limited Overs and while his fans called him selfless, it got so ridiculous at one point that he was sending tail-enders ahead of him to slog in the death overs.

If he wasn’t capable of batting in the top-order or the middle-order, and if he wasn’t even of slogging better than the likes of Wahab, Amir and Shaheen, there was no place for him in the team.

He also poor in Test cricket apart from the one Test vs Australia in the UAE.

His abrupt fall from grace is a lesson for all Pakistani captains in the future. No matter how high you soar, if you don’t keep your individual performances your top priority, you will have nowhere to hide once the team starts losing, which is basically all the time for a Pakistani captain.

 

[Markhor]

Sarfraz might not show it in public, but deep down, he must be very dejected and regretful over how his career has gone off the rails within 2 years after the highest of highs (for a Pakistani cricketer).

He had Pakistan cricket at his feet after the Champions Trophy and could have captained the side for longer than Misbah did across formats, but his lack of confidence in his own capabilities cost him dearly.

He continued to hide in the batting lineup in Limited Overs and while his fans called him selfless, it got so ridiculous at one point that he was sending tail-enders ahead of him to slog in the death overs.

If he wasn’t capable of batting in the top-order or the middle-order, and if he wasn’t even of slogging better than the likes of Wahab, Amir and Shaheen, there was no place for him in the team.

He also poor in Test cricket apart from the one Test vs Australia in the UAE.

His abrupt fall from grace is a lesson for all Pakistani captains in the future. No matter how high you soar, if you don’t keep your individual performances your top priority, you will have nowhere to hide once the team starts losing, which is basically all the time for a Pakistani captain.

Agreed, Sarfraz's stock couldn't have been higher after the 2017 CT win. Everyone felt a sense of renewal with a batch of young, exciting faces in the team. Even after some poor results (losing at home to SL, 5-0 away to NZ), Sarfraz still had credit in the bank from the CT win.

However he wasted that goodwill by not focusing on his own form and staying fit. Misbah, for all his limitations as captain and the poor ODI results, was able to survive for 4 years because his own form didn't drop and was still the fittest member of the squad.

The Sarfraz era should've been a new chapter in Pakistan cricket but ultimately was more of the same mediocrity bar a few memorable moments.

 

[zain7077]

Sarfraz might not show it in public, but deep down, he must be very dejected and regretful over how his career has gone off the rails within 2 years after the highest of highs (for a Pakistani cricketer).

He had Pakistan cricket at his feet after the Champions Trophy and could have captained the side for longer than Misbah did across formats, but his lack of confidence in his own capabilities cost him dearly.

He continued to hide in the batting lineup in Limited Overs and while his fans called him selfless, it got so ridiculous at one point that he was sending tail-enders ahead of him to slog in the death overs.

If he wasn’t capable of batting in the top-order or the middle-order, and if he wasn’t even of slogging better than the likes of Wahab, Amir and Shaheen, there was no place for him in the team.

He also poor in Test cricket apart from the one Test vs Australia in the UAE.

His abrupt fall from grace is a lesson for all Pakistani captains in the future. No matter how high you soar, if you don’t keep your individual performances your top priority, you will have nowhere to hide once the team starts losing, which is basically all the time for a Pakistani captain.

He is showing it. Retweeting all the tweets singing his praises. Mainly those by Karachites such as Rashid Latif.

 

[Hasan123]

He might have been popular but he simply wasn't good enough as a player . He was found eventually. Also his attitude towards fitness was appalling and not taking responsibility as a captain played a massive part in his downfall.

 

[Savak]

Sarfaraz's problem was he let his fitness go for a toss. He got too comfortable in the captaincy role knowing there weren't clear options apart from him and he didn't really have a vision, goal for the side. The side was going nowhere under his leadership. He wasn't a great strategist to be honest either as captain.

 

[Hyperion66]

What is the point of being popular in the dressing room if it doesn't reflect on the ground? Common spectators and fans do not care about dressing room bonhomie, it is the visual aspects of the game that makes people glued to the TV or flock to stadiums. No one appreciates defeatist body language on field, timid batting, shouting at younger players often for no apparent reasons while mollycoddling seniors and blabbering mindless things. Age of specialist captains are long gone and even when it was relevant it was still a luxury that only ATG or near ATG teams could afford. That CT win was the highest point of his career and it was free fall after that. Only thing that I feel bad about as a cricket fan is there are ATGs who finished their career without a single silverware and then there is this character who shocked everyone by winning one and then ran extra miles backwards to prove what a mockery it was.

 

[ahmadharis1]

I always thought Sarfraz should have remained as ODI opener... he would have meshed well with Fakhar in my opinion

 

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

Sarfraz might not show it in public, but deep down, he must be very dejected and regretful over how his career has gone off the rails within 2 years after the highest of highs (for a Pakistani cricketer).

He had Pakistan cricket at his feet after the Champions Trophy and could have captained the side for longer than Misbah did across formats, but his lack of confidence in his own capabilities cost him dearly.

He continued to hide in the batting lineup in Limited Overs and while his fans called him selfless, it got so ridiculous at one point that he was sending tail-enders ahead of him to slog in the death overs.

If he wasn’t capable of batting in the top-order or the middle-order, and if he wasn’t even of slogging better than the likes of Wahab, Amir and Shaheen, there was no place for him in the team.

He also poor in Test cricket apart from the one Test vs Australia in the UAE.

His abrupt fall from grace is a lesson for all Pakistani captains in the future. No matter how high you soar, if you don’t keep your individual performances your top priority, you will have nowhere to hide once the team starts losing, which is basically all the time for a Pakistani captain.

Good analysis. Wonder why he lost faith in his own batting - when he could have separated his bating from his captaincy.

Also happened to Inzamam, of all people, in the last year and half of his captaincy, where he was sending young, inexperienced batsmen above himself - when every analyst thought, as Pakistan's best batsman, he should have batted 1 or 2 down.

 

[msb314]

I always thought Sarfraz should have remained as ODI opener... he would have meshed well with Fakhar in my opinion

No way he can replace Imam as Imam has the same SR as Sarfraz with a vastly better average...

 

[Slog]

What is the point of being popular in the dressing room if it doesn't reflect on the ground? Common spectators and fans do not care about dressing room bonhomie, it is the visual aspects of the game that makes people glued to the TV or flock to stadiums. No one appreciates defeatist body language on field, timid batting, shouting at younger players often for no apparent reasons while mollycoddling seniors and blabbering mindless things. Age of specialist captains are long gone and even when it was relevant it was still a luxury that only ATG or near ATG teams could afford. That CT win was the highest point of his career and it was free fall after that. Only thing that I feel bad about as a cricket fan is there are ATGs who finished their career without a single silverware and then there is this character who shocked everyone by winning one and then ran extra miles backwards to prove what a mockery it was.

he also captained to U19 WC trophy.

And honestly the WC 2019 wasnt that bad. If it didnt rain in SL match or Pak didnt lose their heads in the opening game against WI we couldve won. Pak beat both finalists.

 

[RyanRyan10]

It was wrong to sack him from T20I captaincy. His replacement, Mohammad Rizwan is an awful T20 player and even in Odis, Sarfaraz was much superior to Rizwan.

 

[sabre1486]

Sarfraz might not show it in public, but deep down, he must be very dejected and regretful over how his career has gone off the rails within 2 years after the highest of highs (for a Pakistani cricketer).

He had Pakistan cricket at his feet after the Champions Trophy and could have captained the side for longer than Misbah did across formats, but his lack of confidence in his own capabilities cost him dearly.

He continued to hide in the batting lineup in Limited Overs and while his fans called him selfless, it got so ridiculous at one point that he was sending tail-enders ahead of him to slog in the death overs.

If he wasn’t capable of batting in the top-order or the middle-order, and if he wasn’t even of slogging better than the likes of Wahab, Amir and Shaheen, there was no place for him in the team.

He also poor in Test cricket apart from the one Test vs Australia in the UAE.

His abrupt fall from grace is a lesson for all Pakistani captains in the future. No matter how high you soar, if you don’t keep your individual performances your top priority, you will have nowhere to hide once the team starts losing, which is basically all the time for a Pakistani captain.

You know what.....usually without fail when you post something it comes across as being unfair and uncharitable...but you are spot on. I feel he should have worked on his fitness and batted four or five in ODIs, he scored decent runs at that position in England during the ODIs in the 2016 tour.

But you got this spot on.

 

[Saj]

Yes most of the players liked him.

I can only think of a couple of shows of public dissent from team-mates when he was shouting at them. Perhaps that was different in the dressing-room, but overall most of his colleagues respected him.

However the decline of Sarfaraz was rapid and a lesson for players who become complacent and take their place for granted.

 

[ManFan]

I have zero pity for Sarfraz.

He let himself rot away after working so hard.

 

[Mamoon]

he also captained to U19 WC trophy.

And honestly the WC 2019 wasnt that bad. If it didnt rain in SL match or Pak didnt lose their heads in the opening game against WI we couldve won. Pak beat both finalists.

Our performance in the World Cup doesn’t deserve any benefit of doubt. We could have also lost to Afghanistan if the umpire didn’t make multiple blunders.

Imad was plumb LBW when he was on 0 I think, and then he won Pakistan the game. Overall it was a middling World Cup, certainly not worthy of champions or runner-ups.

Our fans also assume that we would have walked over Sri Lanka. If Pakistan and Sri Lanka could beat England and Afghanistan could nearly beat Pakistan and even push India to the last over, Sri Lanka could have also beaten Pakistan.

Based on the matches that we played, we certainly didn’t deserve to make it to the last four. Our NRR was the third worst in the tournament and we lost three of our opening four games.

 

[hitthestump]

Clearly he is a born leader because there was a longggg period where his performances would have earned him zero respect in that dressing room.

It's a shame that he got too comfortable. Screaming at everyone else on the pitch when his own form was in the toilet. Looking like a tellytubby and buying ice creams during a world cup. He probably needed someone to show him a bit of disrespect while he was still captain - look at his transformation after he got kicked out!

Had Mickey not allowed him to get complacent maybe he'd still be in the side. But i think Rizwan is a superior player in all formats except t20 so no big loss.

 

[sharmaji]

The victory that Sarfaraz led Pakistan to in Champions Trophy 2017 is the stuff of legends. That moment is perhaps what every sportsperson and fan dreams of. Classic underdog coming from nowhere and beating the arch-rival and the tournament favourite in the final to win the trophy. I am surprised there haven't been any movies made on the championship trophy victory by Pakistan.

Sarfaraz was at the top of the world, he had it all, and to see him where he is today is such a shame.

 

[RickyG]

Sarfraz should've worked harder on his batting and fitness. He should've made sure he batted in the top 5 consistently.

On a separate note, it's interesting to hear this from Mickey. Around the world cup time we were hearing about mutinies against Sarfraz which it seems was an attempt to create disharmony within the team by our own media to sabotage their world cup performances. Who needs enemies?

 

[Maher96]

Post champions trophy - that particular team never reached any heights again, let’s not forget Safraz Captaincy was supported by upcoming players like Babar, Shadab, Hasan and Fakhar all on form
At the time.

Once they all dipped in form he lost the helm and PCB just moved on as usual.

May be he could have given something more but it seem Rizwan’s time had to come and he took his chance with both arms.

 

[sindhiboy]

I always thought Sarfraz should have remained as ODI opener... he would have meshed well with Fakhar in my opinion

Exactly. He was never a lower order player in limited overs. Never even thought of reaching his potential in odis

 

[Mamoon]

The brutal reality check in the 2018 Asia Cup was the beginning of the end for Sarfraz and Mickey.

After the Champions Trophy fluke and 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the UAE, our players and fans’ heads were in the clouds and the overconfidence was comical.

In January 2018, New Zealand brought us back to earth by whitewashing us 5-0 in the ODI series with the likes of Babar averaging 5, but we brushed it aside because we were still milking the Champions Trophy.

The first half of 2018 was all minnow bashing and a few wins against an underpowered Australia in the tri-series in Zimbabwe.

Prior to the Asia Cup in September, we reached our peak arrogance. Sarfraz stated that India is afraid of playing Pakistan, Hasan Ali first mocked Indian public on the border with us lame generator celebration and then he stated that he would like to take 10 wickets in one match against India.

The fans were also insisting that the Champions Trophy final was the beginning of a new era of Pakistan dominance against India - many compared it to the Miandad six in Sharjah and how it gave Pakistan a psychological edge against India.

We were told that the likes of Babar, Fakhar, Imam, Shadab, Hasan, Imad, Asif Ali, Sarfraz, Shaheen etc. do not have scars of defeats against India and because of the Champions Trophy, they will not be overwhelmed against India and crumble under pressure.

When it was revealed that Kohli will be sitting out, our arrogance increased and we thought all we had to do was turn up and if will be a repeat of the Champions Trophy final.

But what India did to us in the Asia Cup and the huge gulf between the fans was embarrassing. Even without Kohli, India was three levels above Pakistan and those two matches in the Asia Cup was an illustration of what would happen if India and Pakistan were to play bilateral cricket.

It completely destroyed whatever Champions Trophy credit we were left with. All this talk of Pakistan making progress under Sarfraz and Mickey was flushed down the drain.

The overconfidence of our players was shattered and it kicked off a losing spree where Pakistan ended up losing 21 out of 25 matches going into the 2019 World Cup.

 

[Abdullah Rabbani]

Suddenly his downfall started after CT triumph when pk whitewashed by srilanka b team in there on yard and then we see more worst things by this mickey's mouse

 

[Snowflake]

The brutal reality check in the 2018 Asia Cup was the beginning of the end for Sarfraz and Mickey.

After the Champions Trophy fluke and 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the UAE, our players and fans’ heads were in the clouds and the overconfidence was comical.

In January 2018, New Zealand brought us back to earth by whitewashing us 5-0 in the ODI series with the likes of Babar averaging 5, but we brushed it aside because we were still milking the Champions Trophy.

The first half of 2018 was all minnow bashing and a few wins against an underpowered Australia in the tri-series in Zimbabwe.

Prior to the Asia Cup in September, we reached our peak arrogance. Sarfraz stated that India is afraid of playing Pakistan, Hasan Ali first mocked Indian public on the border with us lame generator celebration and then he stated that he would like to take 10 wickets in one match against India.

The fans were also insisting that the Champions Trophy final was the beginning of a new era of Pakistan dominance against India - many compared it to the Miandad six in Sharjah and how it gave Pakistan a psychological edge against India.

We were told that the likes of Babar, Fakhar, Imam, Shadab, Hasan, Imad, Asif Ali, Sarfraz, Shaheen etc. do not have scars of defeats against India and because of the Champions Trophy, they will not be overwhelmed against India and crumble under pressure.

When it was revealed that Kohli will be sitting out, our arrogance increased and we thought all we had to do was turn up and if will be a repeat of the Champions Trophy final.

But what India did to us in the Asia Cup and the huge gulf between the fans was embarrassing. Even without Kohli, India was three levels above Pakistan and those two matches in the Asia Cup was an illustration of what would happen if India and Pakistan were to play bilateral cricket.

It completely destroyed whatever Champions Trophy credit we were left with. All this talk of Pakistan making progress under Sarfraz and Mickey was flushed down the drain.

The overconfidence of our players was shattered and it kicked off a losing spree where Pakistan ended up losing 21 out of 25 matches going into the 2019 World Cup.

These are all your past two years' posts combined into one. Save your material, dude... Otherwise you won't have much to share.

 

[MenInG]

Outstanding record as T20I captain for Sarfaraz



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="in" dir="ltr">Win percentages:<br><br>Eoin Morgan 63.24%<br>Asghar Afghan 80.77%<br>MS Dhoni 58.33%<br>Sarfaraz Ahmed 78.38%<br>Virat Kohli 61.70%<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/NTK9jHCbbI">pic.twitter.com/NTK9jHCbbI</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SajSadiqCricket/status/1455245016763412494?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[shah9425]

Great record

 

[ask_analyse_act]

It was wrong to sack him from T20I captaincy. His replacement, Mohammad Rizwan is an awful T20 player and even in Odis, Sarfaraz was much superior to Rizwan.

Performance matters , you may compare and see the difference now.

Sarfraz started to hide himself in the batting order, he got very relaxed after he beat India in an ICC tournament final with such a huge margin

He forgot that was a team effort , which Babar highlighted in his speech after they beat India and the broke the record last week even though he played a captain’s knock.

Sarfraz with his lack of fitness and that yawning in the middle of a Ind vs Pak CWC game was awful to say the least.

 

[Varun]

How do you get popular when all you do is scream at your players on the field?

 

[shamaan]

How do you get popular when all you do is scream at your players on the field?

Its what happens when he's not in the field.

 

[OmarKhan99]

How do you get popular when all you do is scream at your players on the field?

There's no denying that Sarfraz was great with strategy and player management, as is evident with his performance in ICC Tournaments, Domestic Tournaments and also his captaincy in PSL. This is why he was popular.

Different captains have different ways of managing players and different ways to stop their players from getting too complacent. You may disagree with his methods, but not results.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

He was tactically good in t20is, no doubt about that.

In ODIs, he was fine as well.

But in Tests, he was pathetic. He approached tests like ODIs. That defeat to SL and NZ were way too heartbreaking.

He should have worked on his fitness and batting. He was never really a proper batter and more of a deflector and sweeper. He should have worked on his defense and learnt some proper cricketing shots because unorthodoxy isn't going to keep carrying you once the honeymoon phase is over.

But credit to him for how he has handled his ouster. Didn't do emotional pressers or spewed venom.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Mickey might be a good and passionate person. But I hate him for how he preferentially dumped Junaid Khan, Sami Aslam, Rumman Raees and to an extent Shinwari.