Pakistan cricket never fails to offer an ample serving of controversy and disappointment on a regular basis. It is this trait, which is why on the field, we are considered an unpredictable side, able to play as abysmally as a street cricket team at an international level on one occasion and a seasoned well-balanced, talented team on another. The abrupt resignations of head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis, shortly after the announcement of the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup displays a similar sort of uncertainty off the field as well. One feels embarrassed for both legends of the game who offered the same rationale for their respective departures, on the same day no less, that the precautionary requirements of COVID-19 meant too much time had to be spent away from home while anyone who has followed Pakistan cricket for the past few decades can smell the proverbial from a mile and understand immediately what the circumstances behind this development really are. The selection of what is widely believed to be a sub-par team that will compete in the T20 World Cup coupled with Ramiz Raja’s highly expected and mostly-confirmed hiring as PCB chief offers a better explanation as to why such a drastic change on the coaching side came about so unexpectedly. As with any controversial episode in Pakistan cricket, the details take time to come out and are slim, but much earlier than that it becomes apparent that it is very political.
No cricket coach wants a team that is immensely difficult to mould into a winning team to be simply enforced upon him, but for head coach Misbah, any collection of talent was apparently an unsatisfactory unit, displayed by his record of failing to win against moderately better teams while beating the amateurish ones was relatively easier. Misbah and Waqar weren’t perfect, but they were perhaps good enough. Pakistan faces a tough season of cricket in the coming months with two coaches gone and an incoming board chief whose appointment has largely displeased the cricketing fraternity and its various stakeholders.
