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Maranello

Excellent comments KA, and very good arguments for backing our boys Down Under. To say that Pakistanis lack hard work now would be a travesty; the youngsters really are working hard, but despite the talent, one cannot expect them to become consistently good overnight. The improvement in the one-day arena is for all to see; if a world cup was held next month, I would submit that Pakistan would be joint favourites for that, regardless of whether it was held (as long as no matches were scheduled for the Rose Bowl or Cape Town!). If the world cup was held in the sub-continent or Sharjah, Pakistan would be the main favourites. This is primarily because the talent that has always been there has been very effectively harnessed by Woolmer in the past six months, and the obvious weaknesses (lack of strategy; poor planning; bad decisions making; too many no-balls; not sticking to the plan) have generally been rectified, with differing levels of success.

Sorting out the Test team will take much longer, simply because Tests are a much more intense 'test' of character and technique, and our youngsters lack both, due to the abysmally poor standard of our domestic cricket and local infrastructure. But give Woolmer some time back at home with the youngsters and no tours, and we will see worthwhile changes.

Histroically, Pakistan have not always been inconsistent. The team in the mid to late 1980s was arguably the best in ODIs and the joint best in Tests with the Windies, and Imran Khan achieved that by instilling mental toughness and exemplary consitency in the men. Imran himself was probably one of the hardest working Test cricketer of his era (not my words, since I wouldn't know; the testimony of various colleagues and opponents). For someone with so much natural talent, he worked very very hard on his fitness, his batting, his run-up, his technique, right till he retired at the ripe old age of 42!
So to say "pakistani players have never been much for concentration nor hard work" indicates rank ignorance.

Similarly, Miandad's concentration levels as a batsmen were legendary. He would participate in all sorts of mind games with the opposition, in fact sledge them as a batsmen to get the fielders and bowlers all riled up, and still manage to keep his own concentration perfectly. Viv Richards himself said that if he had to get someone to bat for his own life, it would be Miandad - does not suggest poor batting concentration to me! (Richards said this in the late 1980s, at a time when other batting greats included Gavaskar, Border, Gower, Greenidge, Haynes, Richards himself, Crowe et al).