With the PCB's post-mortem into Pakistan's difficult U-19 World Cup campaign underway, this week’s comment piece discusses the importance of supporting the group of talented youngsters at a pivotal point in their careers, and avoiding knee-jerk reactions against the coaches who have worked hard to develop them.

 

by Salaar Shamsi (August 27, 2012)

The Pakistan Cricket Board sent, what was arguably their most talented Under-19 squad ever to the World Cup in Australia, so how did they end up with the worst finish ever, in that competition? In the words of legendary West Indian captain Clive Lloyd, who knew a thing or two about harnessing a team with prodigious skill, "talent is useless without an end product".

This team of youngsters had an abundance of ability, the two brightest sparks being bowling spearhead Zia-ul-Haq, who drew comparisons to the great Wasim Akram and captain Babar Azam, touted as the answer to Pakistan's long standing opening woes. These two were easily the standout performers, but even the likes of Mohammad Nawaz, Sami Aslam, Ehsan Adil and Usman Qadir would have walked into the final XI of any of the other teams participating in the tournament. Considering the strength of the support cast, which includes players such as Imam-Ul-Haq, Saad Ali and Zafar Gohar it's hard to fathom how they dropped off the radar.

A team that promised so much ahead of the tournament, raising the hopes of fans after the Asia Cup somehow contrived to finish a disappointing 8th in the tournament. What went wrong?

Truth be told, as is the case of most Pakistani sides to take the field, this team wasn't lacking in ability. However, the decision-making at times appeared to be questionable and in this aspect of the game the green-shirts were found lacking.

Before we get into a post-mortem of Pakistan's Under-19 World Cup campaign, it's important to acknowledge the potential consequences of a knee jerk reaction from the cricketing hierarchy. The Pakistan Cricket Board is no stranger to ordering an investigation into matters when things go wrong. At times it’s necessary such as in 2009, when Pakistan returned from a two-month tour of Australia win-less with a squad ridden with politics and infighting, the need for interrogation was obvious - it was time to shake up the system.

Whenever an investigation is conducted by the PCB, what invariably follows is a change of personnel; out with the old in with the new and unfortunately for the progress of cricketing development in the country, this process is repeated often seemingly without logic. At times, we even see the return of some individuals we’d thought had been discarded for good, as in the case of Intikhab Alam and Iqbal Qasim.

At that time an interrogation was necessary but the position with the Under-19s is altogether different. The U-19s represent the future of Pakistan's cricket and subjecting them to such officious questioning would only serve to further damage their already damaged confidence.

The cricket board of course needs to understand the circumstance of the failure, but those who followed the tournament know Pakistan were very much in the running until they travelled up to Townsville for the crucial quarter-final. Young boys who grew up in an environment which preaches utter intolerance towards losing to India went into the game believing the hype, and not even contemplating defeat which only sought to increase the pressure on their young shoulders. How does one expect them to react when the chips are down? Quite simply they don't – they freeze. The combination of a poor decision at the toss, consecutive top-order collapses, a sensational spell of bowling from the opponents all led to the young prodigies being sucked into a cricketing reality they clearly weren't prepared for.

It was all downhill from that point onwards. The boys might've physically turned up to play the West Indies and Bangladesh but their minds had faded into a world of dejection. We, who had been closely following the team since arriving in Australia, saw a clear change in the frame of mind from when the boys began this adventure. Losing to India and the World Cup, the burden on those youthful shoulders was clearly evident to the PakPassion reporter who saw them heading home at Brisbane Airport. The atmosphere was in complete contrast to that which had been evident after the early success in the warm-ups and the group stages. The chit-chat between the players was minimal. With guilt-ridden faces the dejected souls finally breathed a sigh of relief, the nightmare was going to be over and they were heading home.

Where did it all wrong? Fact of the matter is, mindset is the biggest reason for the failure and we leave ourselves too vulnerable to adversity. The players, the management, the coaching staff weren't deluded. Deluded are the people claiming the boys were complacent. Deluded, are the people, inside and outside the PCB, who are already baying for another witch-hunt.

The question which must be asked of the PCB is, what does that help us achieve? Should a year of hard work by Coach Sabih Azhar and his management go to waste, merely because things didn't work out for 50 overs of a cricket match? Sometimes in life, we need to look at the bigger picture and the hope is that the Zaka Ashraf administration, which has already taken several positive initiatives for the development of the game within the country, will not take such a step. We don't need an overhaul of faces, what is truly needed is an overhaul is our mindset.

What Pakistan can do is focus at the positives. Whilst they lost their final three games in Townsville, the fight shown by the team in all three encounters is admirable. It is not easy when your much-touted batting has failed, but the Pakistani bowlers and fielders showed some real spirit in that quarter final against India. More display of courage was evident in the games following but the heart was no longer in the game. The fielding continued to be exceptional, the bowling disciplined, the running between the wickets superb. This is what we should be talking about. We need to acknowledge and appreciate young talent, build their confidence and offer them further incentives at an extremely critical stage.

We need to acknowledge, dissect and understand the root cause of this failure. As earlier stated, anybody who truly followed Pakistan's campaign would realise it wasn't as bad as recorded on the scorers’ sheet. One match, 50 overs, six hours, one wicket - the smallest of margins.

There is a mental fragility, a psychological complex amongst our players which we strongly need to work on. It wouldn't take psychologist to diagnose the team had been shattered by defeat.

If the PCB proceeds to sack Sabih Azhar and his staff, we would not be taking a step forward; we would be taking three steps back. Evaluating Sabih Azhar, his performances and commitment towards the ultimate cause, bringing a new set of faces takes us back to square one and all the effort put in by the current management goes to waste.

What of the players? The PCB has already acknowledged our youthful cricketers are often emotionally challenged and mentally weak. That's nothing to look down upon – it merely exposes a flaw in the system. In the past, some young cricketers like Mohammad Amir have been treated by 'specialist' psychologists like Maqbool Babri. Now that the PCB has diagnosed and accepted the problem, it's time to develop a cure.