The Woolmer Effect: What BW has brought to Team Pakistan

[King Aragorn]

Throw yourself onto a soft couch and let your mind drift away...Allow it to wander away into dreamland...Let yourself relax...It's been a long time since we saw some calm in our cricketing world...You die Pakistani fans out there deserve this. It’s time to relax and rejoice. Alhamdolillah, things have changed for good.

For how many years have we seen our brainless selectors try out raw players against the toughest of oppositions and then see them thrown out? For how many years have we seen players who had established themselves in the side being cruelly shown the exit door, never to be return? For how many years have we endured this complete chaos? For how many years have we allowed great mismanagement by coaches? The pain for true Pakistani fans, seeing this turmoil, was certainly immense.

But things have changed for good. A very courageous and positive step forward was taken by the PCB and the move has surely paid off.

A look at the scorecards of this ODI series against India will tell you he story. We had 16 good players at our disposal. Throughout the 6 matches, only two changes were made by the team management by their own choice. The other changes, still very few in number, were forced because of injury and other problems.

Yes, we had some success in the tournament and the story might well have been different had we not bounced back. But I'm afraid this is nothing by conjecturing. One would be going down the “This would not have happened if this had happened” road which leads to nowhere, really...We were comprehensively beaten the first two ODIs but still, there were no major overhauls in the selection. The team management still showed great resilience in sticking to the lads even when they were not performing well. This is something for us all fans to cherish – after all, it’s has been a rare occurrence in the past.

People were asking for the head of Sami as he was surely a nobody. Some fans even went to great extremes – someone had ‘auctioned’ Muhammad Sami on eBay. How pathetic can it get? Afridi was of course a mindless slogger who had no brains and would never succeed. Rana Naved had no speed and hence could never make important inroads early in the innings in tough, batsman friendly conditions. Inzamam was a coward who didn’t want to play up the order as he was more comfortable in milking the part timers. Salman Butt’s numerous weaknesses had been used to bamboozle him and his century against Australia was just a fluke. Arshad Khan couldn’t even spin the ball on Indian tracks, let alone threaten the Indian lineup. Malik had been out of form for a long time and on top of that, he could not bowl and hence, didn’t deserve a place in the side. He was declared by many, including the notorious Waheed Khan, as Woolmer’s favourite. That was the only reason he was in. Perhaps it is our impatient nature. In our quest to see how sides reach the glory days of old, we just engage in extreme love and hatred. Why cannot we learn from the past? Why cannot we understand the problems that our players have been going through?

Woolmer bravely confornted the sky high and relentless criticism and stuck with the players in difficult times.

I thank the Heavens, Shaharyar Khan initially showed some spine which is so rare in the halls of PCB. He stuck with Woolmer when people called him part of a Zionist conspiracy; when people called his appointment unpatriotic; when people pillaged him for his selection policy; when people went livid over the fact that Woolmer had made some suggestions in regards to the central contracts…I can go on and on. The list is endless.

We must all thank Woolmer for weathering this storm. From Day 1, he has rambled on about consistency. From the first day he has told us that he wants a core group with which he will work and will improve the players. He, unlike many of us fans, understands that the domestic system of Pakistanis is in total shambles. He knows these players cannot maintain pressure for a long time nor can they absorb a lot of pressure. He knows that they have immense shortcomings in techniques. But he also calls them his “children”. Woolmer has to, more or less, make an international player of a high standard with nothing much to work with. Even the base isn’t there. On top of that, the selectors are as useless as ever. What can you expect from Bari, really? But the way in which Woolmer has been working with the team is certainly impressive. He talked about his “bus” at the very very start of his career with Team Pakistan and told the players that they better join the crowd by showing full commitment or else they wouldn’t be allowed to enter. Making statements like, ‘we can do it without Akhtar’, are and were surely as risky as the turbulent waves of the Antarctic Ocean. But Woolmer took the risk for the team.

He had faith in his boys and he must be proud of their achievement now.

His task is certainly not finished yet. In fact, he hasn't perhaps even achieved half of his own targets but I can assure you, the chart of Team Pakistan is looking skywards. If the PCB continues to support Woolmer, I’m sure things will continue to get better. Of course, there will be a dip here and there. We might well be slightly inconsistent. But that is how the process of rebuilding is supposed to happen. Coaches like Wright, Simpson and Fletcher did not make their team into champions overnight. And Woolmer is no different from them.

The consistency in selection, the team spirit, the leadership, the backbone shown by the players, the enthusiasm, the work ethic, the continued improvement, the never-say-die attitude...it all makes me feel proud of the players.

Here’s to yet another forward thrust by the Green Machine!

[Shaka]

That's an excellent analysis KA, although I'm not sure whether it is that Woolmer is such an exceptional coach, rather that we have given the job in the past to people who just weren't qualified. Like you though, I have been confident this move would bear results in the long run. BW deserves great credit to sticking with players he believes in, and doing this has built an incredible team spirit and loyalty from those he backs.

I see you mentioned the journalist Waheed Khan. I read his column yesterday where he grudgingly admitted that Woolmer deserves some praise...although you could see he was almost choking on the words he wrote. There is a far more professional approach to Pakistan's cricket now and with Woolmer having a decent array of pace bowlers to work with soon - to compliment what is a fast improving batting line up - I think Pakistan will soon be back amongst the big hitters of world cricket where we should always belong.

Great read, thanks for that.

[King Aragorn]

Thank you bhai.

An interesting question that you pose there.

Woolmer might not be ‘exceptional’ but he is surely one of the best coaches out there. I remember reading an article somewhere (Perhaps by Silly Point on PCB's official site) in which the author claimed that according to some ICC representatives, Woolmer and Buchanan were in the 'top tier' of coaches. Whatmore, Wright and one other coach followed.

And Woolmer's certainly made South Africa into a great fighting unit as well.

But, at the same time, as you yourself mentioned, his effect has surely been somewhat 'amplified' due to the fact that we have had totally unprofessional coaches in the past. What he has done is simple - start with the mere basics of the game and then move on.

So I'd say that it's a bit of both really.

[Captain]

Woolmer has done well considering the time limit sofar, before our guys couldn't field well and were lazy, but Woolmer has brought the level of fitness up in this team and the results are good, they actually got afew runouts in India.