Daily Times

LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain and coach Misbahul Haq sees the likely rehiring of Mickey Arthur by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as “a slap on Pakistan cricket”. Arthur is likely to come on board as the Pakistan men’s team director after Najam Sethi took over as the interim chief of the PCB. Misbah blamed former Pakistan players for damaging the credibility of the system and forcing the PCB to look outside the country for top coaching roles. The PCB’s talks with Arthur, who had coached Pakistan from 2016 to 2019, had failed three weeks ago but they kept persisting to find middle ground. It has been understood that the board is close to agreeing a deal with him as team director and not, as in his previous stint, as head coach.

The Pakistan job, should he accept it, will be his second concurrent coaching role as Arthur has a long-term deal with Derbyshire. Arthur does not want to end his job in county cricket and both parties derived an agreement allowing him to have both jobs. It will be an unusual agreement — at international level at least — in which he will not be with the Pakistan team on every tour but will have a handpicked group of support staff running operations. “It’s a slap on our cricket system that we are not able to find a high-profile full-time coach,” Misbah told this scribe. “It’s a shame that the best ones do not want to come and we insist on having someone who is looking at Pakistan as a second option. I blame our own system, which is vulnerable enough with so many weak lines for anyone to exploit it. We are to be blamed ourselves that we have disrespected and discredited our own people to make a bad image. The present and former lot don’t respect each other, with media and former players using their own YouTube channels for ratings, grossly hitting the credibility and value of our cricket which, as result, gives an impression that we are not capable.”

He said the Pakistan cricket fan was always disgruntled; he was picking up things from the media and was under the wrong impression. “Players speaking against each other with grudges and talking openly with disdain just devalues our community, and that becomes the common perception. Our cricket has been constantly under pressure with wavered and subjective opinions. The game is hardly a subject of objective and constructive discussion.”

Arthur’s stint as the Pakistan head coach ended in 2019 when the PCB cricket committee recommended not to renew his contract. Misbah was part of the very committee back then that grilled Arthur after the 2019 World Cup and was one of those responsible for Arthur’s release. Interestingly, Misbah later succeeded Arthur and had unprecedented influence in Pakistan cricket by taking over as the head coach of the national side, as well as — uniquely — the chief selector. He, however, resigned from the position with a year left in his job, in September 2021. There has always been much debate about foreign and local coaches in Pakistan, and Misbah alleged that the handling of each individual has been different by the PCB bureaucracy, with local coaches facing more scrutiny from the board.

“It’s the mismanagement and the consistent changes at the helm that is a problem and we are never able to find one solid line for our cricket. Now there is a common narrative that Pakistan cricket does not even have a single capable guy and they are forced to look outside. Successful teams like India have completely shifted to homegrown coaches but sadly the policies here are so inconsistent and vague that we are never able to reach a consensus on what we want to do.” During Ehsan Mani’s tenure, the PCB tried to pull in modern cricketers in the working structure but several former players were reluctant to join due to the board’s inherent instability and internal working culture. Wasim Akram is a prime example as he has always distanced himself from taking up a PCB job and has preferred to work on a short-term role away from public scrutiny.