PCB head comes in support of Mickey Arthur

Pakistan were completely outplayed in a marquee clash against India on Sunday. They fielded poorly, bowled okay and batted horribly to concede the game by 124 runs. Sarfaraz Ahmad looked out of ideas when Yuvraj Singh, in the company of his skipper Virat Kohli, was going great guns towards the end of the Indian innings.

Ever since the defeat, there has been a section of media who is calling for the sacking of Mickey Arthur. Former batsman Mohammad Yousuf too voiced his disapproval of the Pakistani coach. PCB Chairman, Shaharyar Khan, came out in support of the South African. Shaharyar was of the opinion that since taking over as the coach of Pakistan in May 2016, Arthur has delivered good results which culminated in T20 and ODI series win in West Indies recently.

Arthur has performed well

“It is unfair to demand the sacking of coach after one defeat against India, I don’t agree with such things,” Shahryar Khan told Geo.tv in an exclusive interview in Birmingham.

“Mickey Arthur’s performance has helped us, he is teaching our players to opt for 21st-century cricket, the team has improved under his coaching. His overall performance good, he has made a big difference and will continue to do so,” Khan said.

Shaharyar, like millions of Pakistanis, was personally very disappointed with the loss on Sunday. He highlighted that losing is one thing but losing without competing at all is very painful to watch especially against arch-rivals India.

“Our team wasn’t that bad the way it failed against India,” said the chairman PCB.

“I was very disappointed because our performance against India wasn’t good. We did well in West Indies but failed against India. Batting was very fragile. It was painful to see the team losing to India,” he said.

‘Need to play agressively’

He insisted that Pakistan has failed to adopt the 21st-century cricket. Their approach against India was very laid back, to be fair. Shaharyar points out that the side needs to play aggressive cricket but it can’t happen overnight.

“We don’t have that approach yet, we need to play aggressive cricket, even in Tests. We are working but we won’t get fruits overnight,” said Shahryar Khan.

Shaharyar said that his Board will not intervene into the loss against India but will review the performance of the squad at the conclusion of the ICC Champions Trophy. He hopes Pakistan will bounce back, which in all fairness, looks highly unlikely.

“We will review the performance after ICC Champions Trophy, I have asked the committee to review after the tournament ends, we still have two matches left and I am hoping that Pakistan will bounce back, we will see after all the matches are done. There won’t be any panic button,” Shahryar said.

Domestic cricket to be revamped

As most of the cricketing fraternity is aware, Shaharyar acknowledged that the difference between India and Pakistan is widening as the Indians have taken their game to another level. He vowed to help improve the overall cricket of his country by making changes in the domestic competitions.

“We are working on improving the standard of the game back home. The general perception is that our domestic cricket should be improved. I have minimised the domestic teams from 26 to 16 and we will further minimise it, but sometimes we are also criticised for curtailing teams,” he said adding that the PCB wants quality, not quantity.

“Our pitches aren’t good, there are hardly two-three pitches in the country where we get proper bounce rest the pitches are dead. We have decided to improve the standard of pitches in the country.” He added.

The 83-year-old will step aside from the position of PCB chairman in August later in the year He is set to be replaced by Najam Sethi, the current head of PCB executive committee and PSL chairman.