PCB should sack “overrated” Whatmore: Khan
“Both coach and captain are fighting for survival. They should have a plan and a vision with which they should leave the team on a firm footing but I can’t see any plan. Instead, they keep their interests before the team.” -File photo
KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Moin Khan Thursday demanded the sacking of national coach Dav Whatmore following the team’s 3-0 whitewash by South Africa, saying a local man should replace him.
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Pakistan flopped miserably against the world number one Test team, losing the first Test by 211 runs, the second by four wickets and the last by an innings and 18 runs.
Whatmore masterminded Sri Lanka’s triumph in the 1996 World Cup and led minnows Bangladesh to their first-ever Test series victory and their first appearance in the World Cup Super Eights in 2007.
But Khan said he was not up to the job.
“Whatmore is an overrated coach,” Khan told AFP.
“There is a concept in Pakistan that a foreigner will not get involved in players’ politics but Whatmore is now fighting for survival.”
Former Australian batsman Whatmore took over in March last year and led Pakistan to the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 tournament, but he has come under fire after two successive Test series defeats.
Khan, who managed only four wins in his 13 matches as Pakistan captain, said Sri Lanka’s World Cup win in 1996 owed more to its players than Whatmore.
“Ask any player of that team and he will tell you that in 1996 Sri Lanka had world-class players and their success was due to their players and not because of the coach,” said Moin.
Khan also criticised Test and one-day captain Misbah-ul Haq.
“Both coach and captain are fighting for survival. They should have a plan and a vision with which they should leave the team on a firm footing but I can’t see any plan. Instead, they keep their interests before the team.”
Pakistan has never been short of cricketing talent but the national team has suffered over the years from bickering and infighting. Khan, who played 69 Tests, said a foreign coach could not communicate with the players properly.
“When a foreigner is our coach, our players have a communication problem and the coach is also unable to brief the players on their mistakes and it’s a big problem,” said Khan, a member of the World Cup-winning team in 1992.
Khan said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had blundered in replacing Mohsin Khan with Whatmore last year.
“Pakistan players were happy in Mohsin’s coaching,” said Khan of the former coach, under whom Pakistan routed the then-world number one Test team England in January last year.
“If Whatmore doesn’t resign himself, then the PCB should sack him,” he added.
Pakistan play the first of two Twenty20 internationals against South Africa at Durban on Friday. They also play five one-day internationals on the tour.
All but lame, these so called analysts, mostly on our media ppl try to build their repute wd such hard hitting comments. To start with Pakistan has never ever performed well in foreign conditions, and esp when the batting line up that we have is still novice wd exception of few players i feel its quite harsh to blame Whatmore, he wd Julian Fountain have done wonderfully well we are a far better fielding side now.
Although team selction baffles me, selecting sarfraz for this tough tour was never going to help pakistans chances and other bowlers that we took wd us and called as replacement was undigestable when you ignore likes of Aizaz Chema & Wahab Riaz who have been constatly performing in domestic circuit.
Good luck Team Pakistan !
Pakistani players must learn English rather Whatmore learning urdu. They must repeatedly view opposition players video and learn to combat their strategy both in batting and bowling. No shortcuts to that.
ok Moin, sounds but and what about some half a dozen highly overrated real culprits – Afridi, the Akmals, Hafeez, Shoaib Malik etc?
Just like Intikhab Alam had no role to play in Pakistan’s 1992 triumph. Pakistan has never won a series in SA and the same was to happen this time. Pak fans just expected a bit of a fight and Pak came close in the second test. Problem is Pakistan’s batting lineup as bowlers did good job overall. chief culprit is Misbah along with Azhar Ali. Both of them don’t know how to attach and can last longer on dead pitches but their fragility against top class bowling has been exposed. None of this is the fault of coach if the selected talent is poor.
Moin Khan says that the world cup win of Sri- Lankan was not due to Whatmroe’s coaching but he thinks the failure of Pakistani team is due to the coach.What an analysis?
Get batsman who can play with some technique and IQ. Its not Dav’s fault that guys like Hafeez and Azhar are considered the best available in Pakistan. In 80s and 90s, these guys won’t even make top 30 but now they are permenant members of test team! Only Junaid, Taufeeq, Yonus, Shafiq and Ajmal belong in test team…not much of a team if you think that there was no Junaid and Taufeeq available.
Please spare us, at-least now when you are no longer part of the cricket team. We already have had enough of you.
Not a huge fan of Moin Khan as an analyst but agree with him on Whatmore. The guy is just as bad as was Lawson. Why cant we attract someone like the calibre of Gary Kristen, Andy Flower and not the old and outdated coaches like Whatmore who are here to make money only.
Waqar was a good coach but unfortunately he was way too biased and also got involved in political games within the team.
K.Akmal should only focus on his batting as keeping is out of his abilities, I guess even Asad Shafique in ODI can do better with gloves.
I am deeply disappointed by Moin Khan’s comments. I have great respect and admire for this great Pakistan wicket keeper. But his analysis lacked appropriate reasoning. I thought, he will analyse the situation better. Now, lets see, that Pakistan played the best ranked Test team in their courtyard. The two world’s best ranked Test bowlers are from SA (Steyn and Philander). On the other hand, Pakistan lacks decent Test openers since last few decades now. So, considering the two simple above facts, who in his/her sane mind thought that Pakistan will beat SA in SA. Yes, I agree, there were poor performances, both with bat and ball, but this does not mean we ‘shake and break’ what we have and do not provide them another opportunity. SA will pay return visit to Emirates (our home grounds) in October and play 2 Tests. Let’s wait and see!!
I disagree with MK. the coach can only tell the players what to do and then it is upto the batsmen and bowlers to deliver.
Yes, the coach can only tell the players, but the problem here is that who is listening or understanding? So, her goes the fact that we need only local coaches. I am sorry, but this is the reality!
“Mr. Khan, who managed only four wins in his 13 matches as Pakistan captain”
What does his track record show?
Secondly, players are not at fault. They are playing their almost after 4 years against world No.1 team.
Mr.Khan at least Misbah has better winning rate then your captaincy performance.
Moin – you have contradicted yourself by saying that in 1996 SL won the WC because of its star players. Therefore, this Pakistan team is not winning because it doewsn’t have star players. Coach doesn’t play the crap shots like our batsmen play – lime Nasir in first test and Misbah in the 2nd test and many more. Please be sensible – this Pakistan team cannot win in SA when you players like Hafeez in the team and that is a fact.