By Saj
October 24 2004

Some forthright and painful views on where it went wrong and who is to blame for the first test debacle at Faisalabad, as Pakistans poor form at home continues. Having the opposition 9 for 3 on day 1 of a test match, with three of the opposing teams best batsman back in the hutch would normally be the first stepping stone to a victory. However what continued to unfold from day 2 onwards was a pathetic display of test cricket at its worst from a Pakistani team that was found lacking in all areas of its cricket.

I am not going to dissect each and every horrible dismissal nor am I going to talk at length about how poor our bowling was at times, instead I am going to attempt to look at what areas need to be improved and certain individuals who need to accept responsibility.

As captain of an international team your responsibility is to lead from the front. Unfortunately in Inzamam ul Haq we currently have a captain who possesses only two strengths as a captain, one being his experience and secondly that he has the respect of his players. However respect and experience are not enough to make you a great captain nor are they enough to win you test matches. Inzamam is a great batsman who I love watching bat, but when Pakistan are in the field he is a liability as skipper.

His field placings, his body language and general command of his team is below par. The fact that the ball is not carrying to your keeper, yet you stand at first slip so far back makes you wonder just what he is thinking, as edge after edge goes to your slip fielders on the bounce. There are no fresh ideas in his approach, he follows the ball as captain, has no innovation and it seems there are no meticulous plans for any batsman. Where is the careful preplanning and homework for the opposition players. You need wickets so you have one slip in place, then after the ball has passed there on 2 consecutive deliveries, you decide to put a second slip in place. Your bowlers are getting trashed to all parts, so instead of taking stock and slowing the game down and coming up with an alternative strategy, Inzamam continues to feed the opposition and allow easy singles to Jayasuriya on balls 5 and 6 of every over as he batted with Fernando. Inzamam stubbornly kept a mid on and mid off for Jayasuriya throughout his innings despite that fact that he only scored 17 runs straight down the ground.

Inzamams captaincy of course is equally as devoid of ideas in one day cricket, but the nature of test cricket means that his captaincy is under even more scrutiny in the longer version of the game. Some serious questions need to be answered by a captain who has had a nightmare of a match and whilst he may blame his batsmen as the main culprits, he also needs to look at his leadership methods and skills!

Another aspect of this current team that is worrying are the lack of “generals” to assist the captain. The only player who is seen regularly talking and discussing fieldplacings is Moin Khan. Where is Inzamams vice captain and other senior players, when he needs help? This is a young team, but its high time that some of the inexperienced players voiced their opinions and who knows some ideas may assist the captain. In days gone by, Waqar, Malik, Wasim, Saeed, Aamir, Rameez, Moin, Rashid etc were never afraid to voice their opinion to whoever the captain was. At times it was like 11 captains in the field, but 11 is surely better than none.

I have said for a while that domestic cricket in Pakistan needs to be changed to 4 day matches instead of 3 day affairs. I think this would especially help us in producing players who have the capacity to occupy the crease for long periods instead of the huge number of “crash, bang, wallop and out” players that we are seeing in the team. Too often our batsman are found wanting when the opposition dries up the run rate and instead of tightening up their defence and working hard for their runs and rotating the strike with singles, they tend to succumb to the pressure and throw their wickets away. To score only 459 runs for the loss of 20 wickets on such a flat track is nothing short of criminal. The fact that, with all due respect to him Rangana Herath collected 7 wickets in this match epitomises the Pakistani batting flaws and problems. A left arm spinner of the ordinary variety, Herath bamboozled the clueless Pakistani batsmen with the 2 or 3 differing deliveries that he had in his armoury. This was no Shane Warne, he simply bowled the ball accurately knowing full well that the home teams batsmen would self destruct and oblige him with regular wickets. All he had to be was patient. The lack of footwork from the Pakistani batsmen made on wonder if their feet had been tied together and placed in cement. This pitch was not a vicious turner, there was no irregular bounce and even on day 5 was a superb pitch to bat upon. Dilhara Fernando whom took 4 wickets on day 4 must have been wondering what was going on as once again our batsmen displayed their ability to make a straight delivery look menacing and get out. All players have bad days, even the great ones, but this batting display was shameful to say the least.

Abdul Razzaq and Moin Khan are and have been fine servants for the Pakistan cause, but if ever proof was needed that Razzaq is not a test cricketer then this match was it. His bowling, whilst he was unlucky on day one, the rest of the match he was seen by the Sri Lankans as easy meat and was hit to the boundary at will. He is not a first change test match bowler and never will be. His inability to play spinners is astounding and one would think that he had never faced them at domestic level. Moin Khan on the other hand looks a spent force, his lack of agility behind the stumps and his run scoring ability have totally deserted him. He is lacking confidence and the bat looks uncomfortable in his hands. He should do Pakistan cricket and himself a favour and call it a day.

The preparation and schedule has been criticised by Bob Woolmer, as having played one day cricket for the past 6 months he feels that his players were not ready for test cricket. Why then were the players asked to participate in a camp, whilst domestic 3 day matches continued – surely it would have made sense to allow the players some match practice and preparation with their respective domestic teams.

Defeat is hard to take for any fan, but when the team has performed in such a shambolic way, then that makes the defeat taste even worse. It will be interesting to see how the Pakistani team bounce back after this defeat and what action the selectors take.

Tougher challenges in test cricket lie ahead with the tour to Australia, tour to India and tour of West Indies coming up. The Pakistani players, selectors and coach had better get their house in order sooner rather than later otherwise it will be long and painful journeys to Oceania, India and the Caribbean.