How does one make a cricket team more consistent?

[Maranello]

No prizes for guessing which team I am referring to.

The talent is there, in most cases the hard work is there too, now for the past few months, excellent coaching in the shape of Woolmer is there, alongwith a whole range of other advisors, fitness instructors, etc.. even the facilities, though abysmal at first-class level, are excellent at National team level..

So the question is..how does one put all this into a melting pot and get people consistently playing to their potential and beyond as a team?

I have my own thoughts on this but would like to hear some other views and keep the options open, before focusing on any one avenue.

[Mike Small]

There never has been a fixed mathematical formula for that my friend although you might still want to ask the Aussies , they have over the years divised plans to do accomplish just about every thing.

[Shaka]

Originally Posted by Maranello

The talent is there, in most cases the hard work is there too, now for the past few months, excellent coaching in the shape of Woolmer is there, alongwith a whole range of other advisors, fitness instructors, etc.. even the facilities, though abysmal at first-class level, are excellent at National team level..

So the question is..how does one put all this into a melting pot and get people consistently playing to their potential and beyond as a team?

I think most of all it needs patience. Too often we hear about the talent being there, but other teams have talent too. The difference is they have a far more professional approach at all levels. In both bowling and batting far too many basic disciplines aren't in place...the bowlers want to bowl fast and ignore other aspects such as accuracy; batsmen aren't able to apply themselves to making a big score and will too often get out chasing the big shots. Imran Nazir, Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed...all of them have more talent than most but none of them really applies themselves properly...maybe it's inexperience, maybe it's just plain stupidity. Take today for example...I don't think Younis Khan is anywhere near as gifted as those players, but while Imran farhat was playing all the glorious shots you just knew that Younis was the one who had set himself to make a big score.

I think Pakistan are lucky right now to have one of the best cricket gurus around in Woolmer. Provided he is allowed the time and space to impose his ideas on the team I am sure it can make a big difference. I don't think England's emergence from a long stagnant period is just down to Harmison's and Flintoff's either. For me the turning point was the appointment of Duncan Fletcher, a coach who has really moulded the team in his image for me. So I think there will be setbacks early on, but I am pretty optimistic that we will see Woolmer gradually build a team in which each player knows his role and can be relied on to perform it. That's when the consistency will come.

[Rachael]

I think Woolmer's a good first step.... but that's purely about sorting the flagship out: I don't think the consistency is really going to be there until the lead of the flagship national side is trickling down to 1st class cricket. When the fist class sides exemplify the sort of professionalism that one used to see in Woolmer's SA side then the future will, indeed, be rosy.. but I doubt it will happen before that.

The English case is perhaps a reasonable guide: Fletcher came in as a "Woolmer" figure.. and we started getting "team England" together.. with central contracts, a great coaching team, stronger training regimes and a ruthless captain all contributing. Then came Marsh and the academy: that was the first step towards {a} identifying short term talents to fasttrack; and {b} sorting out medium term, indiiduallytailored development programmes to give those talents the opportunity to become dedicated professionals long before they even get CLOSE to the Test arena.

England has been at this for some time.. but is still not there yet: Harmison's been turned from a frustration to a leading light, Flintoff's been turned from an embarassment to a talisman, Strauss has come in and looked the part, but we're still only at the beginning in terms of chasing down the Aussies. Getting ready for an away Ashes win in 2007 STILL looks a tough ask.

Seems a reasonable, if frustraltingly long-winded model... but I don't see a shortcut!

[Shaka]

Pakistan's first class cricket is arguably the weakest structurally amongst the leading nations...so i guess even a short term solution is better than nothing! But yes, the Rod Marsh evolution would be the ideal next step. Given the inherent weaknesses in Pakistan's first class structure academies could at least identify and work on pin-pointed talent. though where they'd ground or hone their skills in a competitive environment I'm not sure..although one bright spot is that at least we are seeing regional cricket matches being played competitively for the first time next month as opposed to 'this bank' vs 'that airline'!

[Maranello]

Shaka, Rachael & Mike - you all make very interesting and valid comments. My two-penny worth:

{a} Pakistan, India etc are not developed countries like England or Australia. So there is a natural limit to what type of cricket infrastructure (eg academies etc) Pakistan can develop with the best will in the world. These limits are due to lack of funds, alternative uses for funds, and general buying power not being what it would be in England etc.

{b} That said, the first-class cricket set-up in Pakistan is an organisational mess. No other country has organisations, public institutions and banks etc playing in the main domestic set-up. I mean, who really cares whether Pakistan International Airlines beat Pakistan Customs or not? or whether one bank wins over another? But this is the main domestic set-up - the regional based tournament is interlayed with this, so all players play for a regional team (eg Karachi W) in the first tourny for the 3 months, and then for a departmentalteam in the next tourny for the other 3-4 months.

Incidentally Shaka, the regional competition (the Quaid-e-Azam trophy) has run side-by-side with the Patrons' Trophy (the departmental cup) for as long as I can recall.

This first-class set-up clearly does not encourage crowd participation, and does not get any at all. It also does not encourage teaming when everyone plays for two different teams, with two different sets of team-mates, each season.

Why is this set-up there? Again, refer to point {a}. People do not watch domestic cricket, and no one buys its TV rights..so there just isn't enough money in domestic cricket for it to sustain itself and the players on a professional basis. Many decades ago, the way around this was to get all the players in domestic cricket employed by nationalised organisations, eg PIA, Customs, the Banks, etc. So the players got proper salaries and had a secure income and could play cricket full-time.

Only now, in the multi-channel world, is TV and sponsorship money being put into the domestic game, but only in the region-based competition, for obvious reasons.

{c} Pakistan's domestic set-up is definitely the weakest in all the countries, as Shaka points out. However, despite {a} and {b}, there are some things that can and should be changed. Mismanagement is rife in PCB - it is not just generally wilful corruption, more political infighting and jockeying for position. Pakistan is by no means alone in this and is probably better off than the Indian board.
So, even sorting this mismanagement and politics, which does not require a lot of money, only the will, will reap dividends.

{d} Cricket is supported and played as a religion in Pakistan. It arguably has the deepest support of all cricket playing nations - people start playing cricket when they are 2, and generally never stop till they are 80 or dead, whichever comes first. Even in the poorest of dirt-poor villages, and the remotest of remote outposts, where there is no electricity, no running water, no sewage, no gas, no roads... there will be a lot of people playing cricket every single day with passion.

{e} Because of {d}, there is a vibrant, informal and ad-hoc club cricket network in Pakistan. It is not a system, but a loose, un-coordinated network. There are no professional coaches anywhere, no official money...but club cricket at all levels, played everywhere, in grounds an stadia, but also on the streets, in fields, in backyards, in garages, and in people's houses.

{f} Recently, with more TV money coming in, a few national cricket academies have been set-up, in the key cities, which are world-class. Woolmer is on record as saying that the Lahore Academy is as good as any he has seen anywhere. However, these academies can only cater for a hand-ful of players..a mere drop in the ocean of talent. It seems most of you are unaware of these academies, so obviously they are not widely acclaimed or even well-known!

{g} Pakistan also has, arguably, the best talent pool (or ocean?) of all the cricket playing countries, but also the most untapped. Our national teams are always selected from the big cities, where players can get noticed, use their connections and join academies etc. Who knows how many other Wasim Akrams are working in fields and in corner shops in the length and breadth of Pakistan? Even street cricket in Pakistan is played at a level, and with an intensity, not matched by many first-class games in other nations. I have many Indian friends, good club players all of them..and they have been flabbergasted by the level of cricket they see in the club matches they have seen. Similarly, the few English club-level players I know who have been there, report likewise.

Pakistan routinely trounces most teams at the under-19 level with limited resources. If there were under-16 competitions, we would be the perennial world-champs.

However, even tapping into all this talent is not sufficient... the players need coaching, at under-19 level, in their clubs, in their first-class teams... only then can people with promise (for that is all what under-19 players are) become decent Test cricketers.

Conclusion
The above are just some facts about how things are, and my opinions on them. Pakistan will become a truly world-beating side only..
when vibrancy is injected into the first-class set-up over time....and
when the impact of the pervasive mis-management and politics diminishes...and
when professional coaches are employes at more junior levels..

Till then, Woolmer, and the academies can only work at the top-most level, skimming the surfance, and hope somehow things filter down below... I strongly believe the Aussies are so successful because the Pura Cup (or the Sheffield Shield as was) has the 6 best first-class teams in the world..and players who join the national team at age 26/27 are just so much more mature and accomplished as cricketers than other countries, even if they had the same skills and talent to start with.



PS: these are just my thoughts..not a definitive solution. So do welcome comments and corrections from you three and others.

[Maranello]

Just re-read the above monologue and it hit me that I had actually failed to fully answer my own question!

Originally Posted by Maranello

How does one make a cricket team more consistent

I think there are some relevant suggestions in the above posts. Looking at this more broadly, I don't think that mere consistency should be a problem for Inzi and Woolmer, and they will be able to get this in the short term (how long is that? 6 months? 1 year? who knows!). What will take time is to develop a consistently high-performing team, who consistently play above their potential...

But Pakistan did have exactly such a team in late 1980s and early 1990s, we consistently challenged the WI, and in fact were the only team not to lose home and away series to them in that period, once getting a very strong Windies line-up all-out for 53 in the Faisalabad test of 187. Viv Richards as the WI Captain always singled out Pakistan as the toughest team to beat, partly because they were the only ones with a decent leggie in Qadir. And apart from that, this team won memorable Test series wins away to India and England, and was in a different class to others in ODIs in the late 1980s.

So what were the ingredients that made that team consistent and high-performing? I think the skill or the talent was probably less than the current crop, but what was there was very strong leadership in the form of Iman Khan. This was couple with a lot of hard work by everyone, excellent team spirit, in which everyone played for the team over and above personal glory, and every single team member tried to go beyond the call of duty (in fact, to quote Rachael from a different thread, they all "worked together to help create a team environment where everyone had the encouragement to flourish such that the team as a whole consistently punched above its weight"). Coupled with this, they developed an excellent temperament, and were fearless in their approach. That is the spirit of the current Aussie team, and this was the spirit that Imran and Miandad had created.


My point in bringing up all this history is to say that despite all that I said in my previous post, the right leadership just at the national team level, in the past, has done the trick. Pakistan have gone backwards for most of the past 8-10 years, and it will take time for Inzi and Woolmer to fix it, but I am hopeful... Woolmer is very keen on the team ethic, in fact that is his greatest strength as a coach, and that I think is the key.

[Rachael]

A question, Maranello: what role do you think the English county cricket "finishing school" played in past success for the Pakistan team? I'm not sure which players were involved over here in what era.. but I've seen Wasim Akram, for one, singled out as a guy who matured immensely in the singularly professional and focussed environment of the English domestic scene. Was he one of many? I just don't know.

The breakdown in links between caribbean cricketers and English domestic cricket is frequently cited (rightly or wrongly) as one reason for the decline in WI fortunes since the heaady days of the 70s and 80s: any resonance in the case of Pakistan?

[Ernest]

I don't think it make much difference these days Rachael, there is no such thing as the English County Cricket "Finishing School" anymore, you are thinking back to the days of Clive Lloyed, Waim Akram ect, but so much cricket is played these days, no international player is away from their national team long enough, to benefit from County Cricket.

Even in the days you are talking about, I doubt "finishing school ", would be applicable to these players, as the counties only took on, good established players for their respective countries.

Ern

[Maranello]

Rachael, in my life-time, the one player who has most benefitted from county cricket is Wasim Akram, in terms of his development as a cricketer. Waqar & Saqlain to a lesser extent. Many other Pakistani players, especially bowlers and all-rounders have played county cricket, but as pointed out by Ern, its not the finishing school it once was.

Before the 80s, Imran Khan, benefitted greatly from the education he got at Worcester & Sussex.

The one thing in common for all these guys is that they worked very hard..maybe the ones who play in the CC now do not, so do not benefit as much.

In the 70s, most of the Pakistani Test team played for various counties and did very well, some even leading their respective counties (there were no overseas player restrictions then) - Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Mushtaq Muhammad, Asif Iqbal, Miandad, Intikhab Alam & others all did well at counties...not sure what impact it had on their development as they were established Test players when their countracts started.

Imran & Wasim also developed the most whilst playing for their counties as they were not established players when their county contracts started... Imran because he was too young and too green at that time...and Wasim because he had played hardly any first class cricket - in fact he did get selected for the national team straight from club cricket, and played first class cricket much later on (before being snapped up by Lancs).