Winning combination… Coach Mohsin Khan (left) and captain Misbah-ul-Haq are all smiles after whitewashing England in the Test series © Getty Images
By Fawad Hussain
The basic ingredients required from an ideal cricket coach are: mentoring the team, maintaining discipline, building for the future and forging a good relationship with the captain.
Unfortunately, the want of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) seems to be different - the coach should be from outside of Pakistan.
The PCB appears to have almost finalised a deal with former Australia cricketer Dav Whatmore to fill the vacancy of permanent coach of the Pakistan team. Whatmore has solid credentials, but like most people in Pakistan I think the former Sri Lankan and Bangladesh coach is not required by Pakistan - at least for now. The reason is simple: Mohsin Khan — made interim coach after Waqar Younis — has done a pretty good job so far.
Pakistan have not lost a single series, be it limited-overs cricket or in the longer version, since Mohsin temporarily filled the vacuum. Although the players, especially captain Misbah–ul-Haq, deserve greater share of praise for wins against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and more importantly for the emphatic series win against World No 1 England, no one can snatch away Mohsin’s credit.
The charismatic former Test opener has a lot of positives in his favour:
1. The team is winning under him
2. The team has stayed away from controversies
3. He commands the respect of the players
4. There is much harmony between him and the players.
Mohsin’s strategy of forming a back-up pool of players, which he started about two years ago after becoming the chief selector, promises a healthy supply of players for the future.
The PCB is firm on recruiting Whatmore on a very lucrative salary while Mohsin is keen to continue as the head coach without asking far too much. It will be sad if Pakistan’s current progress is derailed following a change of coach.
(Fawad Hussain is a sports reporter for The Express Tribune. The above article is reproduced with permission from www. http://tribune.com.pk/)
