Amid reports that Mickey Arthur is set to join Pakistan as the team's 'online coach', a former Pakistan support staff member has come out and blasted the players for not respecting the authorities. Over the years, the relations between Pakistan's players and coaches haven't always been a bed of roses. There have been instances when the likes of Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq and Arthur himself haven't seen eye-to-eye with players and vice-versa, and while this is nothing new with international teams, the frequency with which the episodes have come out in public is concerning.
Weighing in on the topic, Sikander Bakht, a former national selector who also worked as a support staff member with the senior Pakistan men's team, has accused the players for treating their own coaches unfairly as compared to those who come from overseas. Explaining why Pakistan coaches are always under pressure, Bakht recalled an incident involving him and a cricketer which highlighted then frosty image of a coach in the eyes of a player in Pakistan.
"I had once tried to tell a Pakistan player when I was involved with the Pakistan team. He said, 'You have just played 26 Tests for Pakistan. I have played 40. You are trying to teach me? I am saying this on oath'. This is the approach of players. You think a cricketer can go and say something to Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan? The players behave well with foreign coaches. Take Mickey Arthur, he hasn't played a single international game but he is good with man management. Because he's a foreigner, they are scared of him," Bakht told Geo News.
{{/usCountry}}"I had once tried to tell a Pakistan player when I was involved with the Pakistan team. He said, 'You have just played 26 Tests for Pakistan. I have played 40. You are trying to teach me? I am saying this on oath'. This is the approach of players. You think a cricketer can go and say something to Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan? The players behave well with foreign coaches. Take Mickey Arthur, he hasn't played a single international game but he is good with man management. Because he's a foreigner, they are scared of him," Bakht told Geo News.
{{/usCountry}}The legendary Wasim Akram had recently issued a statement which further underlines the same. Asked if Akram would ever step up to become Pakistan's head coach, the former captain replied with a resounding 'no', whole adding that coaches in the country are not just criticised but are abused too. History has it that no Pakistan coach has lasted for tenures as long as say a Ravi Shastri or Justin Langer or even a Rahul Dravid, and as Bakht pointed out, it has to do with lack of decency or even a simple acknowledgment by the players towards them.
"We have had a lot of coaches from Pakistan. Be it Javed Miandad, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mohammad Yousuf – but they couldn't handle. I will take an example of a player without taking his name, who works with me on Geo. He told me that he prays every day that he is not given any role with PCB. There are so many difficulties and pressure there that I pray in every Namaz that I don't be given a job with PCB," he added.