Exclusive Interviews

We are delighted to present an exclusive interview with ex-Pakistani left handed opener and current Karachi Dolphins coach, Sadiq Mohammad.Here, he speaks to PakPassion.net about his past and present experiences.

PakPassion Presents an Exclusive Interview With Sadiq Mohammad

by Haroon Khan

30th May 2010

PakPassion.Net: We are very fortunate today at PakPassion.net to have ex-Pakistani left handed opener and current Karachi Dolphins coach, Sadiq Mohammad. Thank you very much for joining us today Sadiq Bhai.

PakPassion.Net: You have made a successful transition from player to coach and are part of a successful domestic cricket team. Do you feel having fewer teams could improve quality of the Pakistani domestic cricket?

Sadiq Mohammad: There are plenty of good players playing domestic cricket and hence there is a need for the 13 teams. There are 2 teams from Karachi and 2 from Lahore so there can be a case for possibly reducing the additional teams there but they are generally big cricket playing regions. So I feel that the number of teams should be kept the same. The PCB needs to give all the good players an opportunity. As long as the best players are getting a chance then I do not think 13 teams is too many. More important is that the PCB needs to take control of which players are selected for domestic cricket instead of letting the regions select players.

PakPassion.Net: You have also played county cricket in the UK. We have seen recently that the PCB has blocked players from taking up county contracts. What is your stance on this and do you feel that our players should be given the opportunity to ply their trade overseas?

Sadiq Mohammad: For the top cricketers in Pakistan, county cricket is still valuable exposure. In my days, players got county contracts for entire seasons and for lengthy periods. Nowadays players are getting short contracts for T20 tournaments or the like. I still feel that if a player is getting the chance to play first class cricket in county that he should be allowed to play.

PakPassion.Net: What do you think is the future of Test cricket as it stands at the moment? Do you think it can survive after the popularity of T20 cricket?

Sadiq Mohammad: T20 cricket is obviously very enjoyable, but the quality is not the same. It is really a slogger’s game. It is not the real test of a batsmen’s skill. It is a game to draw in the crowds. I think the ICC will be looking at how to make it even more of a spectacle by more hitting. They may even consider having a batting powerplay added. It is really a game for today’s times. As the world is running and not cruising these days, so the spectators are after quick results.

I do not think test match future will be affected by T20 cricket. Crowds will probably be affected but crowds for test match cricket were affected before T20 cricket in any case. But it has already affected test match cricket 4-5 years back. ODI were also affecting Test match crowds. The only exception to this has been Australia and England. They have done a very good job at marketing test matches which is why they continue to draw good crowds in test matches. To get crowds back to cricket in other countries, they should try and play series during the school holidays, or when the weather is best. That type of scheduling might make a difference in bringing crowds back to test match cricket.

PakPassion.Net: Now back closer to home for you, Shahzaib Hassan is one who also seems to be having a good season. What are your views on his game?

Sadiq Mohammad: Shahzaib is a good player but not quite ready for international exposure. He can hit the ball in the air, but I think hitting the ball in the air is no great quality of a batsmen. Hitting the ball through the field like Salman and Kamran did through the T20 World Cup, is how it should be done by generally playing it along the ground. The likes of Shahzaib and Afridi are the same in that they want to hit every ball in the air. Any player can hit the ball in the air, but the real quality of the batsmen is determined by how well he plays the ball through the field and along the ground.

PakPassion.Net: Another player on your books is Asad Shafiq and do you feel he has the talent to make it at the top level?

Sadiq Mohammad: Yes he is a very good player and I am sure in 1-2 years time he will have played for Pakistan. He is a very talented player.

PakPassion.Net: Are there any other up and coming Pakistani batsman do you rate highly from the domestic scene?

Sadiq Mohammad: Sarfraz Ahmed, the wicketkeeper; I believe will be back in the test team. He is a talented wicketkeeper and a good enough batsmen. The most improved player I have seen is Khurrum Manzoor. The last 4-5 matches I have seen him playing in the one day trophy he has been scoring well. But still he is still playing too much across the crease. He is not playing it straight enough, and tends to play it behind the square on both sides. This is a general problem with all players in Pakistan these days. To be able to play the ball in front of you such as through the midwicket and through cover, mid-off and mid-on, that is when the batsmen can be recognised as a good player. That is the quality that you see in Ricky Ponting, Watson, Hussey, Lara and players from the past such as Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad.

PakPassion.Net: Being the younger brother of the talented Hanif Mohammad, did the burden of expectations from a young age make it difficult for you?

Sadiq Mohammad: Actually being a brother of Hanif, Mushtaq and Wazir, I had a bit of pressure on me to start with, but at the same time I had such good mental strength to rectify my mistakes at home, which I used to apply in the nets and in the cricket games which made it really easy for me. I am really lucky to belong to a family where the game comes very naturally to me. One or two words of advice on footwork or backlift, or the pitch on the ball, or what type of shot to play – these kinds of instructions coming from Hanif Bhai, Mushtaq and Wazir made it very easy for me and released a lot of the pressure. Allowing me to represent the country in a fantastic way by opening with Hanif Bhai in my very first test match, that was a great honour. The downside was that no matter how well I did, I always remained in their shadow.

PakPassion.Net: Do you still regularly meet up and play cricket together?

Sadiq Mohammad: No we are all living far and separately. We do get together for dinners, birthday parties and weddings. We do all talk about cricket, but none of my other brothers play cricket anymore. I still play a couple of friendly matches here and there. We have a lot of very competitive veteran cricket here. I used to play a couple of years back, but didn’t enjoy it too much. It felt more like punishment rather than a game.

PakPassion.Net: You played for some part in an era where helmets were not worn, do you think that made batsmen better players of the short ball?

Sadiq Mohammad: Well in my early days there were no helmets. I was one of the first ones to introduce the helmet to first class and international. When it was not there, we never thought of it, we just used to come and play it in the line of the ball. But when you talk about playing the short ball and hooking, I believe the hook shot has never been perfected by any player in the world. Look at Lara, Bradman, whoever it may be, the hook shot with or without the helmet has never been perfected by any individual player. Playing the short ball is not easy, with or without a helmet you can still get hurt. Players have hit good hook shots but from the day this game has been invented till now, no player has been able to master the hook shot. The bowlers make a plan by putting two players behind the square, and put a few verbal suggestions – “you're chickening out”, “you can’t hook”, and bowl a bouncer. And the batsman loses his temper and gets out. It is just not a shot you can control.

PakPassion.Net: What was the fastest/most hostile spell of fast bowling you ever faced?

Sadiq Mohammad: In my career, Dennis Lillee and Thompson were the fastest from Australia that I faced. From the West Indies, there was Andy Roberts and Michael Holding. Michael Holding was the fastest I ever faced. I don’t think anyone can bowl as fast as he did! I cannot imagine a human being with such a smooth action and with so little effort be able to bowl 95 mph+ every ball after ball.

PakPassion.Net: It must have been a terrifying experience?

Sadiq Mohammad: Yes it was to start with to play such a fast bowler, but being a cricketer and being a professional, I have always worked out a strategy on how to cope with such speed. I have done that successfully and been able to score lots of runs. I scored runs against the West Indies, I scored two centuries in Melbourne, two fifties at Perth.

PakPassion.Net: Which was your most memorable innings and why?

Sadiq Mohammad: Both of my centuries in Melbourne at the MCG were very memorable moments. But my greatest innings was in 1975 in which I batted to save a test match against the West Indies at Karachi (http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63143.html). I got injured during fielding as I got hit by the ball at short leg. I was taken to the hospital and I was vomiting blood the next day. But Pakistan was losing the game and with some pain killers I went in at No.6 and played the entire day. I scored 98 not out that day against Andy Roberts, Bernard Julien, Lance Gibbs. And most of the time I was batting with tail enders such as Sarfraz Nawaz, Asif Masood and these were the players I had to bat with in order to save the test match.

PakPassion.Net: In the many teams you have played with both at domestic or international level, who do you feel was the best captain you have played under?

Sadiq Mohammad: I think the best captain I have played with was my brother Mushtaq as he was always looking for a result orientated game. He was never afraid of losing a match. He was a good worker and good planner. He made us play in order to achieve the result rather than go for a draw like many other Pakistani captains have done.

During county season, the best captain I came across was Tony Brown who was the Gloucestershire captain. He introduced me to county cricket.

PakPassion.Net: You were the coach of the Karachi Dolphins which Afridi plays for. What do you think of Afridi as captain?

Sadiq Mohammad: Afridi is alright. A captain is one who should lead from the front and he should contribute either as a batsmen or a bowler. He has to be good in one of these departments. A reliable player who is able to contribute every couple of games. Afridi no doubt is a good player, but somehow or another he hardly finishes the game. He hits a few sixes and fours but finishing with 20-30 runs is just not good enough. Yes he takes wickets in ODI, but how many wickets you have taken in ODI is not the true indicator of how good a player you are. For example, Wasim Akram played around 350 ODI and has about 500 ODI wickets which is about 1.5 per game. Whereas in test matches, he played 100 test matches and had over 400 wickets. Yes if you are getting wickets in the first 10 overs in an ODI than you are a good bowler, but taking wickets in one day cricket, well everyone gets wickets in the end, in the death overs etc.

PakPassion.Net: Salman Butt who is a very talented left handed opener like yourself has shown glimpses of his brilliances against top bowling attacks from teams such as England and recently in Australia, and yet he has failed to really cement his spot in the team. As a left handed opener yourself, do you think that Salman Butt can be our solution to the opening dilema?

Sadiq Mohammad: Salman no doubt is a good player. But he needs to learn to finish the game. He is a good one day player, and if he plays a good innings and scores 50+ runs he needs to make sure he's there at the end to finish the game.

PakPassion.Net: I guess that is a general problem with plenty of our players.

Sadiq Mohammad: It’s actually the problem with most of our players. They think they have done good. The coaches should put their foot down, that look you have got 80 runs on the board and now you must not come back without finishing the game. Don’t get out and expect the tail enders to finish the game for you.

PakPassion.Net: Thank you very much Sadiq Bhai for your time. We at PakPassion.net would like to wish you all the best with your future assignments.

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