Article: Weekly column by Mudassar Nazar, Sponsored by Nirala Sweets

Mudassar Nazar17-Oct-2001For years, my name was associated as a player with the Pakistan cricket teambut more recently as the next coach. To deny I wanted to be coach of ournational side would be telling you a white lie. To put the record straight,apart from a few approaches over the years by the various Pakistan cricketboards, I was neither approached not consulted about the job. In fact, mypresent employer’s first action was to kick me out even before I’d takencharge of the Pakistan team.I was neither hurt nor amused by this development, as I’ve seen many suchmoves in my career. Please remember, I am a son of a former Test cricketer.My father was very popular and much loved by the cricketing fraternity butat times he too, was a victim of our system.Imran Khan, my old captain and friend, has always been extremely vocal aboutmy ability to enhance the performance of our national team. While I amhonoured and humbled by his estimation, I was daunted at the enormity of thetask before taking charge of Pakistan cricket academies.
Mudassar Nazar
Photo © CricInfo
Many months ago, I received a phone call from the PCB Chairman, Lt GenTauqir Zia, who knew I was coming to Pakistan from England to celebrate Eidwith my mother and family. He invited me for a chat while I was in Lahore.We met up in Mangla and he threw down the gauntlet of coach of PakistanCricket Academy.Pay was poor compared to my earnings in England but I was attracted andflattered by the offer to serve Pakistan cricket again. During my stay I hadmeetings with past and current players like Imran Khan, Rameez Raja, WasimAkram and Ijaz Ahmed, asking for their frank view. They were unanimous insaying if I really wanted to make a difference, then I should take up theacademies and forget about the contentious job of coaching the Pakistancricket team.
Mohsin Kamal
Photo © CricInfo
After a lot of soul searching, I agreed to take the job with the help of AliZia and Mohsin Kamal. We presented our syllabus to the PCB. With sometrepidation, we kicked off in May. We felt all eyes were on us since theAustralian Cricket Academy has helped Australia build a formidable team.I have to admit that after looking at the available talent, I was mystified.Like most of you, I had been brought up on the notion that there is anabundance of talent in Pakistan. Well, I was in for a hell of a shock. Ididn’t see any real talent in the major cities of Pakistan, so I had to lookelsewhere and it was pure relief as well as a pleasure. I found that thebudding cricketers living away from major centres were more earnest andready to strive for better things.We set up six cricket academies in Pakistan and after a couple of months ofhard work and sheer dedication on the part of my coaches and the players,things started to improve and the tension inside me eased. Players in theacademies were totally committed and loved this new scientific approach tothe game.We did not run them into the ground as used to happen to all of us, in thevarious cricket camps I had attended during my playing career. They quicklyrealised this is a scheme designed to look after them and make them betterplayers.
Ali Zia
Photo © CricInfo
Dr Tauseef, who also helped players with their weight training and swimming,gave them a diet programme for the first time in their life. To begin withit was difficult for the players to adjust to a different kind of food.There were some complaints but soon it was business as usual and it madethem fitter and stronger. Dr Meesaq looked after prevention of injuries andconducted the aerobic and anaerobic exercise regimens. Dr Sohail was withthe National Under-19 team at Lahore and although there were three doctorswith the National Academy, he looked after the Under-19 camp on his own. DrRiaz was just fantastic, working tirelessly to coordinate with the doctors’panel and making everything run smoothly with the National and RegionalAcademies. All gave lectures to the six academies on sports medicine.All players selected for academies attended special lectures given byvarious former Test players on the different elements of the game.Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad, Iqbal Qasim, Haroon Rashid, NazirJr, Shafiq Papa, Ashraf Ali and many other Test cricketers gave theirvaluable time for this worthy cause in enlightening our students withlectures on different cricket subjects. It reminded me of the days when Iwas a BCCP colt and taught the rudiments of the game by people like Kardar,Fazal, Imtiaz and some other notable cricketers of the past.Khizar Hayat delivered two outstanding lectures on the laws of the game andmore importantly, on player behaviour. Amir Siddique spoke to the players ontheir mental toughness, as did all our National and regional coaches.Gen Tauqir Zia also addressed the players on what is expected of them, andencouraging them to make the most of this rare opportunity.
Dr Sohail
Photo © CricInfo
During this period we took Pakistan ‘A’ team to Sri Lanka and returned homevictorious. I’m reliably informed, it’s the first time such a feat has beenachieved and if I am being honest, we should have returned home clearwinners rather than marginal ones. We should organise lots of tours at thislevel to give our players more exposure at an early age. In Sri Lanka,Danish Kaneria, Hasan Raza and Irfan Fazil were absolutely brilliant,performed consistently and at times were dynamic. After the tour we wereable to work with the players on one-to-one basis.There is also talent emerging from the Under-19 setup. I am hopeful we willgive a good account of ourselves in the Junior World Cup in 2002.Najaf Shah, Salman Butt, Azhar Ali and Azam Khan will emerge as Test playersif they continue to work hard and progress. There are many other players whohave improved by leaps and bounds and hopefully, will soon catch up with theones mentioned above.Due to poor planning and weak infrastructure, Pakistan cricket has notdeveloped as well as it should have. It was necessary to provide a stimulusto our cricket by opening up these academies. The present cricket managementhas taken a bold step and deserves praise and encouragement to continue. Ihope Pakistan cricket fans will keep faith in this project and have thepatience to wait for the result, as it’s a long and a winding road. I havealready seen some ordinary players graduate to brilliant ones. What’s moreimportant is we’ve only been at work for about five months.The clear improvement within the academies has given me a new lease of life.As a supporter and lover of Pakistan cricket, I can see them growing fromstrength to strength, providing we stay on course.I’d like to thank Gen Tauqir, Brig Rana, Rameez Raja and the rest of PCBstaff for their unstinting support.Gen Tauqir deserves special mention for this development and I would singlehim out for the success of the project. He alone has had the courage to takethis step where past cricket boards have failed. He could have spent dormantPCB funds elsewhere but prudently chose to do so for the long-term benefitof our cricket. If you think I’ve gone overboard in praising him, I’m afraidit’s only the gospel I am preaching! Remember, this is the gent who threw meout!In the end, I would like to thank all our National and Regional coaches.They were outstanding in their efforts, and right behind me.The implementation of this programme would not have been possible withoutthe brilliance of Ali Zia and Mohsin Kamal. In fact, without them, I doubtwhether it would even have started.Let’s hope we can come up to everybody’s expectations and take Pakistancricket to the top, where it belongs.Mudassar Nazar
Chief Coach/Cricket Analyst
National/Regional Cricket Academies
[Editorial Note: This is the first in a weekly series of articles by Mudassar Nazar]