Daily Times

Pakistan cricket coach Mickey Arthur on Friday said it was time to move on from captain Sarfraz Ahmed’s four-match ban for a racial taunt and concentrate on finalising the team for the ICC World Cup. On the national team’s return yesterday early morning from the tour of South Africa, Arthur said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani talked with him and chief selector Inzamamul Haq before reappointing Sarfraz as captain. “We’ve made that decision because we are very comfortable with Sarfraz leading this team forward,” Arthur said at a press conference here. “There’s clarity, there’s no more speculation,” he added. Arthur said that he was completely on board with the move and that all “rumours surrounding the captaincy have now been thrown in the bin.” Sarfraz was confirmed on Tuesday as captain to the end of the World Cup in July, despite the PCB saying its policy was to name the captain on a series-to-series basis. Pakistan media have questioned the Sarfraz decision, including whether it was a political riposte at the ICC for banning the Pakistan skipper. Sarfraz was banned for racially taunting South Africa all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo in an ODI last month in Durban. He returned home and missed the last two one-day internationals and the entire three-match Twenty20 series.

Commenting on the racial issue, the coach said what Sarfraz had done was wrong. “What he did was wrong and it was worked through. We spoke it through as a team. We educated the team through that process. Sarfraz took it on the chin. He apologized, he moved forward. Everything was handled properly.”

Arthur conceded that although the green shirts were unable to yield great results against the South African cricket team, they had tried hard. “It is disappointing that Pakistan could not win the one-day international series, but the team’s spirit against the South African team is commendable,” he maintained. He held everyone responsible for the team’s series loss in South Africa. Pakistan lost the Test series 3-0, ODIs 3-2 and T20s 2-1 against the Proteas. “I don’t think that there is any coincidence that an Asian team has not won a Test series in South Africa before. We know we have a lot of work to do with our Test side.” The coach was more optimistic about the team in limited formats of the game. “I think our white ball team is in pretty good shape.” He picked out Babar Azam for praise, for becoming the batting mainstay in white-ball cricket. “South Africa is the toughest place to bat … to see Babar Azam’s development across all formats on this tour was simply amazing and I think was something to be proud,” he said.

With under four months to go for the World Cup in England, Arthur said the selectors and team management would look at the upcoming Pakistan Super League and the ODI series against Australia before finalising a squad of 15 for the global tournament. Pakistan play 10 ODIs before the World Cup — five against Australia in the UAE after the PSL and five in England in May — and Arthur said he and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq had 20 players in mind and would want to have two game plans in place for the conditions in England during the summer.

“We’re probably ahead of lot of other teams … we have condensed our pool and now have to finalize it after the Australia tour (in March), so we are pretty much on track.” Pakistan have given opportunities to youngsters with the advent of the PSL in the last couple of years. With the T20 league starting in under a week, players will want to impress the selectors particularly for slots in the middle order and the fast-bowling attack. The current probables for the pace attack comprise Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Usman Shinwari and bowling allrounder Faheem Ashraf. Among the spinners, Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim are the likely candidates to make the trip to England.

Published in Daily Times, February 9^th 2019.