Aaqib Javed speaking during the PCB PODCAST:
“I was involved in cricket until 1988, when I left playing, and by 2000, I had moved into coaching. At that time, there was no professional coaching setup in Pakistan. We were fortunate that during that period we learned coaching ourselves and also became part of the PCB’s system, creating our own syllabus and conducting our own courses. Before that, if you wanted to do coaching courses, you had to go to England or Australia. We designed our own Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 courses according to our culture and needs.”
“Of course, there were challenges along the way. But if you treat difficulties as part of the process, they become easier to handle. Nothing worthwhile comes without hurdles. Just as in cricket, getting into the team is one thing, but playing for ten years means you are tested every day. Coaching is similar — you face many obstacles, but progress comes through them.”
About defeats against the USA, in the Asia Cup, and heavy criticism:
“In professional work, whether as a player, coach, or administrator, criticism is a natural reaction to performance. If you play well, people praise you; if you don’t, they criticize. That’s part of the process. I never have a problem with it. If we had won in 92, people would have been happy. They would have lost. In 96, the way we gave a performance, people have a right to criticize.
“Similarly, when you come into coaching as a player, if your team is not performing well, why do you expect people to praise it? Things have improved a lot. If a good team is doing well, people will praise it. I always keep myself realistic. What people say is their job. It won't make a difference to me.”
“I returned to PCB in 2024 after twelve years away. I spent 5 years in the UAE. I made a lot of progress there. I joined Lahore Calendar for 8 years. When the work is done, I don't want anything else to happen. You said a very good thing. “
“Whether you take responsibility or not, you become accountable. If you are a player and you didn't perform in one match, in two matches, or in one series. You will go out. As a coach, as a selector, as whatever. Whether you accept it or not, the system will throw you out. That's why I keep criticising people.”
About being a selector:
When I joined last year, it was October. The England team had come. The first test was very bad. Pakistan lost. I had no intention of coming. I was working in Sri Lanka. I came home on holiday. So we met. I never had the urge to work in PCB. But I met this chairman. And I felt that this guy means some business. He wants to do something. And I didn't come here to be a selector. I didn't want to be a coach. I wanted to do something that I hadn't done in 12 years.”
“The situation we were in, I think it's much better now. Because for the past 5-6 years, Pakistan had forgotten how to win the home series. They were losing to small teams. Why? There are different reasons for that.”
“Either the team is made by the captain or the coach. There are only two people. Other than that, there are many chairmen who make a lot of interference, but Mohsin Naqvi doesn't do that. But he always says, Look at it more carefully. Pay attention to it. Before the Champions Trophy, there were 5 meetings at different times. There was a meeting, and then it was decided that you should be satisfied. Take more time. Think more. But you know that the standard of your selection depends on the pool of players. The better it is, the more competitive it will be, the more difficult the selection will be, and your team will also be good. Because the team is made by the players.”
“We often think that the coach should be good, the captain should be good. But the core of a team is the quality of the players. And you have to make tough decisions many times. When they called me, I told them that I am only interested in development. If the players don't develop, then who will be selected? The pool will increase, the competition will increase, and only then will there be competitiveness in the team. So, I made some decisions. I made pitches, added spinners. They said that we don't have spinners, nor can we make spin wickets. How can it not be possible? Why don't we have spinners? Now give them an opportunity.”
“The thing is that you can never make everyone happy. What was our objective? Victory. We won the home series. Okay. Now, even if they win, they say that the corner is left. What will happen to that? If your fast bowlers have three test matches, how long will that be? Three weeks. If your fast bowlers don't play more in three weeks, one will play, then they will finish in three weeks. No, after that, you have to go abroad. After that, you have to play one day of cricket.”
“If someone has to criticize, then he has to do it. If you have two test matches in South Africa, if one fast bowler plays, three spinners play, then your fast bowling will finish in 15 days. But what is your objective? That you tried to win the test series. Is this the objective of the team? To save it or to lose it?”
About challenges faced as a director of the National Academy:
“The performance of the team is not as important as the infrastructure and development that is required. Actually, that is the job of a chairman. The one who actually does it. In 2003, Touqeer Zia made so many grounds, the National Academy, Karachi Academy, and Multan Academy. So, these are the things that have been linked with him all his life. Facilities, infrastructure run your system. After that, this is Mohsin Naqvi, the chairman. There can be no better chairman in my opinion. There can be no one else. That is the reason. I have seen many people who want to do something but have no courage, and the stadium that you are seeing, I don't think any other person could have done this.”
“In India, in 2006, their president requested that we want to see and study NCA. What have you made? After that, in 2006, they made NCA in India. Now our thinking is again to make it the best high-performance in the world. Why? Because until you don't have facilities, infrastructure, how will you train the players at that level?”
About the basic reforms that should be there, and the benefits of it will be great in the coming days:
“I have seen people come, join and then think what to do. First of all, I had a discussion with them that first of all, look at my plan. If you like this plan, if you are aligned with this plan, then I will be able to do something. This time, we tried to do a lot of different things. The role is different. We have NCA in Lahore, in Karachi, in Multan. And two new ones have been established, one in Faisalabad and one in Sialkot. I have a habit that I never look at my old work.”
“Today, what is needed in the future? What is important? Where are we lagging behind in the world to be able to compete? I gave each academy a role. Like your NCA in Lahore, it's job is to prepare the bench strength for the Pakistani team. We did that with the coach, Mike Haysen, and the selectors. Each player has 2-3 backups. Red ball, 50 over, T20. The job of this academy is that if 4 people are available or 6 people are available, they have to show the clarity of the role. Secondly, they have to show how far away they are from the permanent player. They have to prepare them.”
“The Karachi academy that we have been talking about for so many years, we never gave them any facility. The entire Karachi academy was dedicated to women's cricket in the 1980s. We gave them a permanent academy where they can train themselves. Similarly, Multan Academy is dedicated to under-19 cricket. That group will stay there. And the learning that I learned is that since the training phase was closed, now players are coming to us straight from the first class from different cities. They can only bowl and bat. But the other 5-6 things to become an international cricketer, they are lagging. After that, it has to come to your NCA where it has to be groomed as a product of the requirements of the international level.”
“Under-19 is a place where you keep the kids there and feed them there. There, they learn psychological, mental, tactical, and technical things. After that, in Faisalabad, we are bringing an under-17 group. The best group from the whole of Pakistan. You have to You can teach them your processes. Similarly, in Sialkot, there will be an under-15 group.”
About the connection between Domestic cricket and International Cricket:
“There is a lot of talk about the domestic lesser team, more teams. But it doesn't matter. There are 6 teams in Australia and they are world champions. There are 32 teams in India, and they are world champions. There are 28 counties and they are also champions. It doesn't make any difference. Sometimes we have 16, sometimes 18, and we are also world champions. It doesn't matter. What we are going to do Domestic and academic system.”
“First, we established that there are 15, 17, 19 age group academies. There is a national academy and a women's academy in Karachi. Below this, there are regions. We have just requested the chairma,n and he fully supported us. He has given a ground to every region. Which is a very big thing. If the regional sector doesn't have a ground, then where will they do their activities? Now, they have given a ground. Now, we have established regional academies on that ground. In one region, there are 7, 8 districts.
Now, we are going to do a program that we are reaching out to every kid in every district of Pakistan. We are giving this program in 107 districts. We will go to their doorstep, and every kid who has talent should come. And if he has talent, it depends on what kind of talent he has. If he has a great talent, we will fast-track him and bring him to NCA. In the first step, he will give a trial in the district. He can come to the regional academy. He can progress from the regional academy and come to the NCA. And we are discussing another option that the most talented lot can go to PSL drafting.”
“What is happening in Karachi? What is happening in Multan? Tomorrow, the regional academies from Balochistan to KP, FATA, or the academies in Kashmir, how are they running? How are their systems running? So, we have an AMS system in which, wherever you are living, wherever you are training, we have brought a centralized system with which you can do daily activities. And a very big question that always comes up is that there are different coaches who teach different things. So, for a coach, and for our PCB and for the players, whichever player is there, whatever assessment is being done, that is being done in the central pool. The information of which coach will work with is already there. Which coach has he worked with? This is his profile. His focus is on this. So that all the coaches focus on one thing. Not that everyone starts coaching and confuses the players further.”
About club cricket in Pakistan:
“The thing that gets obsolete, you should move forward. Not that in our time, school cricket was very good. We were the last lot in which thousands of people used to come to watch the match. And big players were born in it. Time is no more. Culture has changed. Now your school cricket cannot be like it was 30-40 years ago. The club cricket that was 25-30 years ago cannot be like it is now. Clubs are not surviving. Grounds are not there. They cannot afford it. Academies have taken their place.”
“In the last year, don't you feel that we have enough options? They said, we don't have a spinner. Now we have to decide who to select. What is the progress? If we talk about fast bowling, we used to have a few names. Now we have a line of ten. Just like Ahmed Daniyal did in Emerging, we have a lot of options in spinners. There are a lot of options in fast bowling. In the last two seasons, so many players have come forward. This season, a lot of people have come forward. Shamil Hussain is such a talented player. His performance is amazing. Azan Awais is from Sialkot. Saad Khan is from Hyderabad. Suleiman is from Hyderabad. Saad Baig is a wicketkeeper from the under-19s.”
“There are plenty of options. Now, your things are getting better. When your team does well, when there is a discussion among the team, when the selectors sit and discuss, it means that your bench strength is getting stronger.”
About the preparations for upcoming events:
“When South Africa came to Pakistan, we knew that we had to make such pitches and spin. We give such pitches to the players who are going to face challenges. There were many practices to play on such pitches. In Pakistan, there was a big problem regarding pitches. In the last 5-10 years, we have been practicing on road pitches. We have been playing test matches on road pitches. Because of this, your batting struggled in challenging conditions. Now, we have introduced a system in high performance. You have to make such a pitch in a week that whichever player comes, whose indication you got domestically as well, that there will not be a single pitch. In domestic as well, you get pitches of 3 phases. In the beginning, there is a 6mm grass pitch.”
“From the last T20 World Cup till now, this is the best time for your team's performance. In which you are winning matches, building confidence, and combining, you have more matches in Sri Lanka. So, according to me, this is the ideal time for the Pakistani team to do well in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Especially the tour of Sri Lanka can prove very helpful for us. Yes, because this region suits us. Let's say if it is in South Africa or Australia, then it becomes difficult due to the bounce. But I think this is the ideal time. “
“The way you have been playing cricket for the last 3-4 months, these are the conditions. And we have seen that the combination of this team is getting better.”
“There are three tiers of indicators that reflect the state of a country’s cricket. The first is the national team — its performance shows the strength of your domestic cricket and the level of your development. The second phase is your “A” team, often called the Shaheens, which indicates the direction in which your cricket is heading. When you see four or five players identified as proper international products, it means your next generation has both talent and potential, and they have already proven themselves.”
“The third tier is the Under-19s. We have struggled a bit here in recent years because this area was somewhat out of focus for two or three years, with tournaments compromised. That is why we dedicated the Multan academy specifically for them. Now we are working to ensure they play three-day matches, one-day matches, and T20s, so that the Under-19 phase also becomes stronger.”
“Immediately, the indicators for the next four to five years come from the Shaheens, and we are quite hopeful. Some of the boys who have performed well are now pushing to be included in the national team. But often, even if a player has delivered excellent performances, we must look deeper: what is his potential, his capacity, his level, and whether he is truly an international product.”
“For example, Daniyal has shown great maturity. Then there is Saad Masood, a left-arm spinner who also bats well — a wonderful all-rounder. For us, it is easier to groom him into a role that will serve the team in the future. Sufyan Muqeem has already been with the Pakistan team, and you can see he is a strong talent. Competition is becoming tougher, and the true measure of a team’s progress is the strength of its bench. It is a challenging situation that benefits us, because it shows the depth we now have.”
“Similarly, Usman Tariq has emerged as an off-spinner, a mystery bowler, and we are happy because this competition among players is good for Pakistan’s success. It means they must work harder, and that culture of competition is what makes a good team even better.”
