SYDNEY: When Waqar Younis was appointed as Pakistan’s bowling coach for the tough tour of Australia, there were hopes that the former great would help the tourists with his vast experience and knowledge of playing conditions here.
But the Pakistanis flopped miserably in the three-match Test series losing it by a 0-3 margin following defeats in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart. The visitors then went on to lose the opening One-day International in Brisbane last Friday by five wickets — a performance that has left the team’s captain Mohammad Yousuf and the coaching staff in the firing line.
Waqar, however, believes that the poor results were not entirely unexpected as he told ‘The News’ in an interview here that Pakistan are facing a serious dearth of match-winners.
“You have to consider the fact that you are playing against the world’s best team in its own backyard,” said Waqar, a former Pakistan captain who was regarded as one of the national team’s match-winners during his peak years.
“You can only beat a team like Australia at its home by playing top quality cricket with the help of some match-winning players. Unfortunately we don’t have many match-winners in this squad,” he lamented.
Pakistan came agonisingly close to winning the second Test in Sydney early this month only to throw it away because of some poor captaincy and brittle batting.
Waqar, 40, is of the view that another reason why Pakistan have done poorly in Australia is their lack of self-belief.
“It has been a big problem, our lack of self-belief,” said Waqar who took 373 wickets from 87 Tests at an average of 23.56. “The boys played good cricket at times but it seemed that they never really believed that they could beat Australia,” he added.
Waqar, who now lives in Sydney with his family, said that Pakistan can no more afford to live on talent alone.
“I’m actually surprised that for so many years we have done pretty well in international cricket on the basis of individual talent alone,” he stressed. “I mean we never had a proper system in place that could produce world class cricketers. We were just lucky that we always got some gifted cricketers, who would help us do well.
“But I don’t think that we can continue to bank on talent alone. We have to learn from countries like Australia. They have a fantastic cricketing structure in place. They know that with such a system they will keep getting sound cricketers. Sadly, we don’t have any such luxury.”
Waqar, who took 416 wickets from 262 One-day Internationals at 23.84, stressed that Pakistan’s cricket chiefs will have to start investing in a comprehensive system to ensure that the sport has a good future in the country.
“We can’t rely on short-term measures because the only way to move forward is by setting long-term goals.”
Source
But the Pakistanis flopped miserably in the three-match Test series losing it by a 0-3 margin following defeats in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart. The visitors then went on to lose the opening One-day International in Brisbane last Friday by five wickets — a performance that has left the team’s captain Mohammad Yousuf and the coaching staff in the firing line.
Waqar, however, believes that the poor results were not entirely unexpected as he told ‘The News’ in an interview here that Pakistan are facing a serious dearth of match-winners.
“You have to consider the fact that you are playing against the world’s best team in its own backyard,” said Waqar, a former Pakistan captain who was regarded as one of the national team’s match-winners during his peak years.
“You can only beat a team like Australia at its home by playing top quality cricket with the help of some match-winning players. Unfortunately we don’t have many match-winners in this squad,” he lamented.
Pakistan came agonisingly close to winning the second Test in Sydney early this month only to throw it away because of some poor captaincy and brittle batting.
Waqar, 40, is of the view that another reason why Pakistan have done poorly in Australia is their lack of self-belief.
“It has been a big problem, our lack of self-belief,” said Waqar who took 373 wickets from 87 Tests at an average of 23.56. “The boys played good cricket at times but it seemed that they never really believed that they could beat Australia,” he added.
Waqar, who now lives in Sydney with his family, said that Pakistan can no more afford to live on talent alone.
“I’m actually surprised that for so many years we have done pretty well in international cricket on the basis of individual talent alone,” he stressed. “I mean we never had a proper system in place that could produce world class cricketers. We were just lucky that we always got some gifted cricketers, who would help us do well.
“But I don’t think that we can continue to bank on talent alone. We have to learn from countries like Australia. They have a fantastic cricketing structure in place. They know that with such a system they will keep getting sound cricketers. Sadly, we don’t have any such luxury.”
Waqar, who took 416 wickets from 262 One-day Internationals at 23.84, stressed that Pakistan’s cricket chiefs will have to start investing in a comprehensive system to ensure that the sport has a good future in the country.
“We can’t rely on short-term measures because the only way to move forward is by setting long-term goals.”
Source
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