By Saheed Raza
April 23 2003

Will Pakistan always be a step or two behind the likes of Australia and South Africa, as a result of our planning and weak domestic set up? Let there be no doubt Pakistan has for decades produced World beating players, Players who have been the envy of the other cricketing nations, and at times this envy leading to forgettable accusations at times. Pakistan fans have had a frustrating time supporting Pakistan the so called “talent” of our players has never been in question but talent alone wont give a team victory on a consistent basis and so has been the tale of Pakistani cricket. The team many times has been made of players with immense talent but little professionalism and little thought on how to win on a consistent basis except for going on to the cricketing field intent on scoring 4s and 6s and destroying batting line ups, with these thoughts in mind Pakistan has achieved some memorable victories in the face of steep odds and these victories can be indeed put down to individual stars putting in great performances to give Pakistan victory.
After the 92 World Cup Pakistan was all set for at least a decade of World domination, this domination never came regardless of the undoubted talent of Pakistani players their promise was never converted to regular consistent victories and we were tagged with the “most inconsistent team” tag. Now after the failure of the Pakistan team in the 2003 World Cup Pakistan is forced to rebuild but regardless, once again Young Pakistan players having immense undoubted talent but too many of them are put into international cricket having obvious flaws in their technique, temperament and ability to play cricket in non-subcontinent conditions. The purpose of this article being why that is we come to the conclusions that,
The Weakness of Pakistani Domestic cricket is the basic barrier that our raw talent has to face. In England or Australia their respective domestic cricket is competitive enough to polish the skills of their young players and to ascertain whether they are worthy to play international cricket and the extinguishing of some of their glaring flaws before they reach the international stage. The weakness of Pakistani domestic cricket means that the young players are unable to polish their skills thus once they start international cricket the flaws that don’t get worked out in domestic cricket are glaringly obvious. Players like Salim Elahi, Naved Latif, Misbah ul Haq, being perfect examples of this. Pakistan has countless times chosen players to play for it that to countless Pakistani fans have no place in the Pakistan international squad.
But it is not just the weakness of domestic cricket it is the docile state of Pakistan pitches that create the problems in our young batsmen, especially the issue of the weakness of Pakistan cricket and docility of our pitches has been touched on by greats such as Imran Khan. The flat, dusty tracks of Pakistan offer little if any movement, there is no seam movement and there is low bounce with no surprises whatsoever for the batsmen, thus the young Pakistani batsmen being brought up on such pitches without variation are able to play in such a way in which their talent is on display within similar sub-continental conditions, but in Australian, English or South African etc conditions, the extra bounce, seam movement create problems and make their flaws glaringly obvious. But what exactly about the docility of the pitches is causing the batsmen to be deficient? Due to the bounce being low and predictable and their being no seam movement whatsoever and swing only coming at the hard work of the bowler and fielding side the batsmen is sure of where the ball will be thus is capable of playing away from the body because there is no seam movement he is able to use his eye and reflexes to latch onto balls that otherwise would require great technique to play on a regular basis. This facilitates weak techniques and shuffling across the crease to gain momentum. Pakistan batsmen thus tend to be flashy and free flowing batsmen who are intent on scoring quickly.
This is also not helped by the obsession of Pakistanis with one day cricket as opposed to Test cricket, and the celebration of albeit exciting players but none the less un-dependable players such as Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar. The combination of these two factors means that young Pakistanis are obsessed with being flashy exciting players and the docility of the pitches means they are able to do so and further still play shots that normally would require immense talent and sound technique. Pakistani bowlers on the other hand have a better time of it, the docility of the pitches means that they get no help whatsoever so they are forced to be able to bowl with speed, aggression and ability to swing and reverse swing the ball. The only thing helping them is the batsmans willingness to give the bowler a chance by playing loosely. If we add to this the fact that most Pakistanis learn to play their cricket on the hard streets of Pakistan where the goal is to score and score fast then we can come to understand the mentality of Young Pakistani batsmen when it comes to batting.
In Conclusion when these young batsmen go outside sub-continental conditions they are faced with a myriad of problems and many will not be up to the task of overcoming them and will add to the long line of Pakistani players with immense talent and great domestic records but who are unable to play international cricket and represent Pakistan, we have a better time with our young bowlers simply because of the hard time they get in Pakistani domestic cricket means that playing in England or South Africa etc with better bowling conditions makes them into good prospects who just have to apply themselves to become good bowlers. Whilst not even talking about the lack of fielding proficiency because Pakistan grounds are not good grounds to dive around in. In short the entire domestic set up facilitates weaknesses in our young players instead of other countries like Australia whose domestic season works out the young players weaknesses and increases strengths. This is not to say the future of Pakistan cricket is not bright the abundance of sheer talent in our youngsters means Pakistan will never be short of possible superstars and all shortcomings can be overcome by one factor in our young players and that is the willingness to learn which has been lacking in so many Pakistan players, if they can do that and learn from the likes of Miandad or Wasim then the future is bright, but ultimately it is up to the PCB to sort out the weaknesses of domestic cricket and the docility of our pitches to make Pakistan a dominant cricketing nation and the addition of batting/keeping and bowling academies where young players can learn from proper coaches is the only way Pakistan cricket will truly prosper.