Pakistan Doesn't Need a Batting Coach, They Need a Long Term Vision
The PCB have asked Javed Miandad to help the Pakistan batsmen before next month's Champions Trophy in South Africa.
Why!?
The PCB feels that the Pakistani batsmen who struggled against the swing in Sri Lanka need help.
Sure they need help, but a batting advisor is not going to do them any good whatsoever.
How can the PCB actually think that Miandad can help these batsmen out and overnight turn them into good players of swing with solid techniques?
Some of these batsmen have been around for more than a decade and their techniques haven't changed.
During this last decade Pakistan have had Zaheer Abbas as a batting coach; they have had the likes of Mudassir Nazar, Bob Woolmer, and Richard Pybus as head coaches; they have asked Geoff Boycott to come down to Pakistan for 2 weeks to help batsmen; even Miandad has coached Pakistan not once but thrice during the last 10 years.
On top of that, world-class batsman such as Inzamam Ul Haq and Mohammad Yousuf have been around the team all this while.
If all these men have not been able to improve the techniques and temprament of Pakistan's batsmen, then what will a Miandad do in a few days at a training camp?
Not much I'm afraid.
Take the example of Imran Nazir.
He made his debut in 1999; during the last 10 years, I have not seen even a slight change in the way he bats.
His technique, his temprament, the kind of shots he plays, the way he gets out, it has all been the same during this last decade.
All the coaches mentioned above have worked with Nazir, and yet there has been no improvement.
So is it really batting coaches or consultants that Pakistan needs?
Absolutely not!
The problem is that the thinking is too short term.
No one in the PCB has the long term vision to try and solve the basic problem that batsmen in Pakistan face.
To produce quality batsmen with solid techniques and good temprament, they need to be up against quality bowling at the domestic level; and to produce quality bowlers, Pakistan needs conducive pitches that will motivate youngsters to take up pace bowling.
Till Pakistan's batsmen are tested in domestic competitions, till they learn to fight and grind it out at the first-class level at home, they will not be able to cope with seam and swing in foreign conditions.
A Javed Miandad, or for that matter any batting advisor, cannot help the current lot of Pakistan batsmen.
The batsmen of the future, however, can be helped.
Only if the PCB starts thinking long term and starts thinking now.
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