Waqar Younis: India are a side built on teamwork and they intimidate Pakistan

[BunnyRabbit]

Met Waqar, Wasim and Ramiz several times through this summer. Waqar has the look of a man who knew this would happen, he has the look of a man who could see this coming.

That may be because unlike Wasim and Ramiz, Waqar has had been involved with Pak Cricket team a lot in the past. He is someone who knows what's going on and how things are, and gave his all to coach the team in all 3 tenures he has had even though it didn't work out how he might have wanted it to.
My biggest disappointment with Wasim is that he has never put his hand up when it comes to helping the team. He still gives the vibe if he is untouchable and a prima dona. Has always rejected offers to coach Pakistan cricket team citing family and media commitments while on the other hand he never shies away from criticizing the team every time they do poorly.

He has been involved in IPL, SL team and PSL franchises but can't spare time for his own country.

 

[Savak]

That may be because unlike Wasim and Ramiz, Waqar has had been involved with Pak Cricket team a lot in the past. He is someone who knows what's going on and how things are, and gave his all to coach the team in all 3 tenures he has had even though it didn't work out how he might have wanted it to.
My biggest disappointment with Wasim is that he has never put his hand up when it comes to helping the team. He still gives the vibe if he is untouchable and a prima dona. Has always rejected offers to coach Pakistan cricket team citing family and media commitments while on the other hand he never shies away from criticizing the team every time they do poorly.

He has been involved in IPL, SL team and PSL franchises but can't spare time for his own country.

To be fair, Wasim has always commented he can only do short term coaching gigs for a month or two max, he was widowed and he needed to spend more time with his kids and then he had a daughter with his next wife due to which he no longer went to coach in the IPL. Besides he definately gets paid extremely highly for commentary which involves zero stress and he is diabetic after all.

Even if Wasim can take time out for a short camp or two or be involved in the PSL, it will only benefit our players. There are plenty of legendary players who are not highly lucratively demanded in Pakistan Cricket, the PCB should be utilizing those for the national team.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

To be fair, Wasim has always commented he can only do short term coaching gigs for a month or two max, he was widowed and he needed to spend more time with his kids and then he had a daughter with his next wife due to which he no longer went to coach in the IPL. Besides he definately gets paid extremely highly for commentary which involves zero stress and he is diabetic after all.

Even if Wasim can take time out for a short camp or two or be involved in the PSL, it will only benefit our players. There are plenty of legendary players who are not highly lucratively demanded in Pakistan Cricket, the PCB should be utilizing those for the national team.

I reckon Wasim could work at NCA and train young pacers and u19 there or maybe accompany them for an A tour or u19 tour, but that will never happen. Coaching at the highest level are basically adjustments and conditioning, the real learning happens at the junior and FC level.

Regarding Waqar, I remember how Umar Gul, and Asif emerged during his first tenure back in 2006, then in 2010-11, Gul improved further(apart from that semi), Wahab Riaz emerged, Junaid debuted and Amir and Asif obviously were there for a period of time.
In his 3rd tenure, our bowling reserves were at the shallowest, he took Rahat Ali under his wing in a bid to groom him but that was a failure of sorts. Junaid got injured at the wrong time and others like Talha, Imran, Ehsan, Sohail Khan didn't improve much. I guess if he gets the guys with good potential and work ethic, he can be really useful.

I hope we appoint someone like Kyle Mills or Jon Lewis or Heath Streak who I think could do a good job in terms of correcting the basics of our bowlers.

 

[Saj]

I think it hurts more for those of us who grew up watching Pakistan hammer India most of the time and largely dominate them. How the tables have turned, how times have changed.

But credit to the BCCI and the Indian players, they have made the required changes over the years, whilst Pakistan cricket has slipped and slid and gone backwards.

 

[Savak]

I think it hurts more for those of us who grew up watching Pakistan hammer India most of the time and largely dominate them. How the tables have turned, how times have changed.

But credit to the BCCI and the Indian players, they have made the required changes over the years, whilst Pakistan cricket has slipped and slid and gone backwards.

This is sports. Australia used to dominate the English in the ashes from 1989 to 2005 and it came to a point where the Aussies stopped taking the Brits seriously anymore and for them the 2005 series was a routine defence but the English were able to turn the corner and they have won an ashes series in Australia in 2009-10, Ashes at home in 2009, 2013 and 2015 and the dominance is no longer that one sided.

Pakistan is going through a similar phase vs India and to be honest which country could have battled and survived the kind of problems that Pakistan has had to deal with where an entire generation of Pakistani Cricketers have gone through their whole careers without playing a single match at home.

 

[Surya Kiran]

This shift happened at the start of 21st Century. When Sourav and along with seniors(Rahul, Anil, Srinath, Sachin) sat across the table discussing the vision for Indian cricket, they all agreed unanimously that they should put an end to this fascination with Pakistan and should beat Australia or at least compete with them to become number one.

From then on, players feel less burdened playing against Pakistan and that fear of failure is not in the equation. Unlike Pakistan team, India plays more high profile series and matches. The fear of failure is more when Indian team travels overseas because there is a very strong desire to win overseas from the board and also the ex players. Gone are the days, when a player would perform in one match against Pakistan and becomes a star player overnight. It is understood that the players have to be consistent over a period of time and not be one match or one season wonders.


I will write a detailed post on Indian Domestic Structure as some one who has seen it from very close quarters
Apart from all these factors, players are very driven these days with cut-throat competition