What has Misbah-ul-Haq done to Islamabad United? And what can the PCB learn from it...

[Forum363]

It is hilarious to see Mickey's fans taking a dig at Misbah when Karachi Kings consistently under-performed under their savior. Misbah at least won two PSLs.

ISLU is going through a rebuilding phase. They appointed a new captain. They are phasing out older bowlers. Rumman was their most successful bowler in the past. This time he bowled rubbish. Faheem has worsened to the extent that I won't be surprised if he's not picked by any team in the next edition. Last two editions, he was among the top wicket takers. Asif Ali's golden period is over. He can't even smack 20-30 runs anymore. One must not forget that they were also robbed by rain in two games which they should have won.

All these have contributed to ISLU failing to qualify for the semis. I am not defending Misbah who did make some errors but you can't pin down the entire blame on him.

Can you explain how they were robbed exactly?

And all those points are reasons for poor performance. But what about the lack of purpose, terrible and random team selections.

If Faheem was so terrible why was he repeatedly played.

 

[The_Odd_One]

Can you explain how they were robbed exactly?

And all those points are reasons for poor performance. But what about the lack of purpose, terrible and random team selections.

If Faheem was so terrible why was he repeatedly played.

Two of their games were reduced to 9 overs. They should have won against Zalmis. Chasing 195 in 20 overs is much harder than chasing 85 in 9. Their another game with Zalmis was a complete washout.

Faheem has been one of their most important players since the last 2-3 editions. He was always going to get a longer rope considering the alternative Ammad Butt is even more mediocre with the ball. I am glad that they brought Zafar Gohar back who has a genuine shot at selection for the national team.

 

[Forum363]

Two of their games were reduced to 9 overs. They should have won against Zalmis. Chasing 195 in 20 overs is much harder than chasing 85 in 9. Their another game with Zalmis was a complete washout.

Faheem has been one of their most important players since the last 2-3 editions. He was always going to get a longer rope considering the alternative Ammad Butt is even more mediocre with the ball. I am glad that they brought Zafar Gohar back who has a genuine shot at selection for the national team.

Okay agreed. Chasing 85 is much easier.

How exactly were they ‘robbed’ in the other game? They won 3 out of 7 from the non rain affected games so what makes you say they were ‘robbed’ when a game was abandoned without a ball bowled? If anything they got a point which they wouldn’t have goi Ng by their form. They had 7 unaffected games and were rubbish.

So why was Zafar not played earlier and more consistently? Why was no one given a clear role. Performing last year shouldn’t grant selection over current form. Perhaps a couple of games but there’s only so much leeway a player should be given.

 

[Shafi]

Wasim Khan is the main culprit to create fake job advertisement and handover jobs to losers like Waqar and Misbah. We will be failed miserably in 2 T20 World Cups followed by 2023 50 overs World Cup. Hopefully IK will feel pressured and remove Mani, Wasim and Misbah.

 

[Savak]

What purpose is Saeed Ajmal at IU apart from being Misbah's good friend.

The analysts, the so-called experts, who are only there as they are friends of the owners.

Kick them out. Get rid of dead-wood.

Shouldn't Misbah be fully supported and given the team he wants if he is appointed?

 

[Saj]

Shouldn't Misbah be fully supported and given the team he wants if he is appointed?

If that's the case, then he may as well have all of his friends as the players.

It shouldn't work like that.

 

[BoomBoomCricket]

Only in Pakistan this useless loser will get so much importance.

Sheer lack of respect. How dare you use that language against Misbah.

35 half centuries and 8 centuries in 99 Test innings as Captain. Misbah was a highly impressive consistent performer as a batsman with the added responsibilities of leadership. No Pakistan batting Captain comes close to matching his numbers in the longest form of the game.

Undefeated series record in 9 Test series as Captain in the UAE against England twice, South Africa twice, Sri Lanka twice, West Indies, New Zealand and Australia.

He won away Test series as Captain in New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies and in Bangladesh twice.

With 26 Test victories in his captaincy, he has the same number of Test wins as Imran Khan and Wasim Akram combined, winning a dozen more Tests than the next best as Pakistan’s winningest Test leader.

He was man of the series in a highly commendable main summer drawn series in England at the age of 42.

In Limited overs cricket, he was Pakistan’s leading run scorer in 2011 World Cup, 2013 Champions Trophy and 2015 World Cup. Only Miandad has more 50+ scores for Pakistan in World Cups and he played three times the number of World Cups as Misbah. Under his calm leadership Pakistan won an Asia Cup, won ODI series in India, South Africa, West Indies and Bangladesh and won two ODI series against a good Sri Lankan team in the UAE.

Only in 2014 did his ODI results as Captain decline when he lost three consecutive ODI series against Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand heading into the World Cup at the start of the next year. But there were obvious factors for this and you would be wise to look at the bigger picture:

Saeed Ajmal’s action – any team would struggle if you take out such a performer.
He actually only captained in one of those three full series.
He was playing against some highly ranked well fancied teams in the World Cup to come at the time.
Pakistan had a long gap after the Asia Cup final on 8th March 2014 before their next ODI series in Sri Lanka in late August 2014. They played very little ODI cricket compared to other countries in the run up to the World Cup.
Younis Khan was diabolically recalled in ODIs by Najam Sethi vetoing selection.
In the most important ODI assignment that year – the Asia Cup, Misbah led Pakistan to the final.
Misbah himself was at least contributing with the bat – leading run scorer in ODIs worldwide the previous year and went on to score four half centuries at the World Cup the following year.

Now have the guts to apologize for calling one of the great men and contributors of Pakistan Cricket a loser. A bloke that has scored five Test centuries after the age of 40 for our great land. I'm not putting up with people like you coming on here and slagging off Misbah ul Haq.

 

[topspin]

In a broader spectrum of things, I tend to agree with you.
However, we must scratch the dirt to get to the bottom of this exceptional case.

First, Misbah himself.
Let's put aside his cricketing skill - whether he saved Pak cricket after 2010 and has an MBA, or whether he was a tuk tuk batsman, is not our topic of discussion here.

We are looking at the role he has played after retiring from cricket.

When Mickey was shown the door, you needed a new coach for which PCB was ready to pay $20,000 odd a month and a guaranteed salary for three years regardless of how he performs and regardless of whether he stays on job or gets fired.

With this premise, you may think that PCB would hire someone with a jaw dropping coaching ability, and a track record of making a huge difference in the international arena.

But guess who did we hire?

Deep in his heart Misbah knew it with 1000% surety that he does NOT qualify to apply for either of the positions - it’s like a pharmacy graduate applying for a physician and a surgeon’s job combined - YET - he applied for these positions.
Why? Because of greed, money and power and the auxiliary of a dishonest mindset.

IMO, if Misbah had an iota of sincerity and honesty towards the true benefit of Pak cricket, he would’ve stayed back and helped the board in finding the right and qualified professionals to take on these two positions. But for $240,000, a year, it wasn’t hard to sell his soul. (And in all honesty, I guess many of us would do it too).

But seriously ask yourself, where is the concept of giving back to the country?

This country gave him prestige, money and fame - and in return, what did he do?
If we look back, he actually started to show his colors by filing an application with Pak govt to exempt his salary from all taxes.

Don't you love it? You want to use the cricket grounds of this country, you want to drive on the roads of this country, you want to earn money in this country, but you don't want to pay taxes?
If it was a poor mochi, nayee, chai wala then yeah but can you imagine it for someone making millions of Rs every month?

This was the point where I lost most of my respect for Misbah.

Now comes Wasim Khan.
Over his tenure, he surely did quite a few a good things professionally. His hard-work and his role behind the scenes to bring cricket back to Pakistan is surely commendable. So credit must be given where due.

However, he badly slipped here.
Misbah lured Wasim Khan into it and not only got both jobs but made him sign a guaranteed salary of a whopping US$720,000 over 3 years regardless of results.

How is this even possible? The only way I see this happening is, if the prime minister has personally forced Wasim Khan and Ehsan Mani to accept Misbah's unrealistic salary demands, otherwise, Wasim Khan can't be this dumb, or is he?

Imran Khan can't be this corrupt and Wasim Khan can't be this much of a lallu - so this truly is a mystery for me as to how Misbah landed on this job with all his demands met by the board?

And to make the situation worse, Wasim Khan, after all is a DESI.

And what’s the desi mindset?
“Accept death but don't accept your mistake.”
This is a classical desi trait. This is hardwired into our DNA. We all have it.

Wasim Khan will now take the criticism on Misbah as a personal hit on his ego because it questions his intelligence and his ability to do his job.

He will be hell bent to defend Misbah’s hiring no matter what evidence, what logic and what results you present to him.

Just don’t have the guts to say "Sorry, I made a mistake. Let me fix it".

Here, in the west, you might’ve seen it a few times that when a person, on a high position, gets caught in corruption or sex scandal etc, he publicly apologizes and immediately resigns from the office - NEVER will you see this in desis. NEVER!

But then again,
At the end of the day, cricket is a funny game and Pakistan is an ultra unpredictable team.
Who knows if the team wins the upcoming T20 WC?
Misbah will gladly take the honor of making this all happen.
But if we badly lose, many of us will have our knives out for Misbah and Waqar.

Points very well made in this post.

In regard to Misbah's obscene package offered by the PCB, it is all very suspicious and something I've been trying to workout myself. It does seem that perhaps an entity of higher powers than PCB was responsible for the decision.

The way I see it, if Wasim Khan can excel in other areas I will give him the benefit of the doubt in respect of this farce of an appointment.

 

[Saj]

Hearing that IU owners are looking to shake things up for the next PSL, with Misbah being asked to take on a Director of Cricket type role.

 

[Forum363]

Hearing that IU owners are looking to shake things up for the next PSL, with Misbah being asked to take on a Director of Cricket type role.

I wonder if the PCB will step in and say that Misbah needs more ‘coaching practise’ ....

 

[Saj]

I wonder if the PCB will step in and say that Misbah needs more ‘coaching practise’ ....

Ah yes maybe they will, but IU owner could turn around and say he's pumping money in and he wants to run things his way.

 

[TeymurBlake]

Hearing that IU owners are looking to shake things up for the next PSL, with Misbah being asked to take on a Director of Cricket type role.

Not bad move actually. They shouldn't have sacked Dean Jones, he deserved more respect.

 

[Forum363]

Ah yes maybe they will, but IU owner could turn around and say he's pumping money in and he wants to run things his way.

So far, the lack of drama between the PCB and the franchise owners has been surprisingly refreshing. I wonder how long that will continue.