Pakistani ‘spin trap’ to catch South Africa, warns Whatmore

Reuters Published October 2, 2013

LAHORE: Struggling Pakistan are primed to catch South Africa out by laying on a “spin trap” during the two-test series in the United Arab Emirates, coach Dav Whatmore warned on Tuesday.

“Our players... want to avenge the 3-0 defeat we had at the start of the year in South Africa. We lost in South Africa because our players were not prepared for the pitches there and the pace and movement they offered,” Whatmore told reporters as his team prepared for the series which begins on Oct. 14.

“But conditions in UAE will be different and we know them well and they suit us. Spin tracks are an option for us and we will go by our strength and we have couple of quality spinners in our side.”

Pakistan's fortunes suffered a further dip when they were outclassed by lowly Zimbabwe in Harare last month – a result which dropped them to sixth in the test rankings and led some pundits to declare the team had hit rock bottom.

With Whatmore under increasing pressure to halt the slump, he pointed out that Pakistan's inability to host matches on home soil since March 2009 – when the Sri Lankan team were attacked in Lahore – has robbed the former Asian powerhouse of precious playing time.

The two-test, five one-day and two-match Twenty20 series is being played in neutral UAE after the South Africans refused to tour Pakistan because of security concerns.

“With no international teams coming to Pakistan and no regular A team tours our younger players are not getting the exposure to develop and we need to do something to plug the gap between our domestic cricket and international cricket,” Whatmore said.

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Sarah

Oct 02, 2013 01:36am

Give the South African feel of there own medicine.Pakistan key weapon is Spin,bombard the South African team with turning tracks,no need of drawing matches,destroy the South African batting on complete turner pitches.Its time to turn the table.Umar Akmal and Umar Amin should be both in Test squad.

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sami

Oct 02, 2013 02:34am

Coach, everyone knows that Pakistan will attack with their spinners. SA will be preparing to handle Ajmal and Rehman. UAE being our home turf plz bring one or two new faces that will surprise the tourists. Where is Ahmad Jamel the fastest bowler from Wasim Akram camp???

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Farha

Oct 02, 2013 05:13am

why would you make your strategy public?

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Ali

Oct 02, 2013 06:36am

To win test u still require some agression which is lacking on the pakistan side. If even pakistan played well they can only draw. So i am think either draw and a loss for pakistan but a win is not possible

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Farhan

Oct 02, 2013 10:25am

The most consistent domestic batsman continues to be ignored for tests. Fawad Alam needs to be in the team.

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HASAN MEHMOOD

Oct 02, 2013 10:45am

@Sarah: Please go through comparative record of Pakistan and its opposing teams on spinning tracks. We have only done marginally better if not worse. Haven't we recently lost to SRI LANKA in spite of having better or comparable spin attack. Tell me which quality spinner we have hit out of the ground? We were almost undone by English spinner SWAN in UAE last time. Our record against Carl Hooper an average West Indian off spinner was pathetic. Hey we could not even dominate Zimbabwean spinners. Considering the astronomical gap between Saeed Ajmal and Zimbabwean spinners, they turned out to be better players of spin. The only time I remember we have dominated and destroyed a spin attack was Indian tour when Zaheer Abbas and company slaughtered Bedi / Parsanna / Chandrashekar/ Venkat Raghwan. So dont raise your hopes too high. It could backfire.

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youth

Oct 02, 2013 12:50pm

Pakistan is already good with their bowling specially spin. Talk about batting line failure. Coach you have still not been able to deliver what is expected from a coach like you. We are getting upset. Do something before our stamina of supporting you goes out

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Bablo Sheikh

Oct 02, 2013 03:59pm

Billi ko Chichron k khawab...

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Abrar-ul-Haque

Oct 02, 2013 05:57pm

"Spin Trap" "Spin Trap". Enough is enough. You are not going to play against a bunch of street players. Don't forget South Africa has players who are masters of playing spin. Talk about your own batting. I don't understand what kind of a coaching is this when you reveal your strategy publicly. Other teams invest more and more on planning what to say, what to do and how to achieve. Why can't you keep your strategies, if you have any, upto you and the players only. PCB, get rid of imported coaches policy, if you want to do any good to the Pakistan cricket. Don't belittle your own wealth of resources (our former cricketers).

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WeCare

Oct 02, 2013 06:50pm

These kinds of statements can only come from a mentally weak side. Always big claims, warnings and all that crap comes from these losers. South Africa will quietly defeat them again and yet these clowns will say "we learned a lot" and there is room for improvement. Then another series with another country will come near and again these clowns wills start to make big claims. This pattern continues....

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Abrar-ul-Haque

Oct 02, 2013 06:56pm

@Bablo Sheikh: Exactly

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Abrar-ul-Haque

Oct 02, 2013 06:57pm

@Farha: Exactly. I strongly support your question.

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Uthmaan

Oct 02, 2013 07:38pm

A spin trap isn't going to do any good if the batsmen don't perform. They keep talking about UAE conditions suiting them better but to be honest a good pace attack performs well in any conditions and I fear the SA pace battery is going to trouble our batsmen again. Pitches which are friendly to batsmen rarely are such for the Pakistanis.

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Irshad Shirazi

Oct 02, 2013 07:44pm

Okay, so we will prepare a "spin trap" and bowl the opposition out. Then what? Who will get the runs when we bat? Apart from one consistent 40 year old who almost invariably comes in when the score is 20 something for 3, we have no one who can post any decent runs. I say we all follow Inzamam's lead and give up watching cricket involving Pakistan.

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Shahid

Oct 03, 2013 12:15am

He says, " With no international teams coming to Pakistan and no regular A team tours our younger players are not getting the exposure to develop." BUT why is PCB not at least arranging A-team tours to England, Australia and South Africa. Are they unable to convince these boards on this matter? ICC must play a role in aquiring at least 2 A-team tour for Pakistan which should be out side the subcontinent. They should consider the lack of international cricket in Pakistan and accomodate a developement plan for its talent through A-tours.

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Sarah

Oct 03, 2013 01:08am

@HASAN MEHMOOD: Abdul Rehman and Ajmal are more dangerous than South African fast bowlers.On the spinning track they are virtually unplayable.I have watched them destroying England team with one of the most steady batting team into dust of UAE.Any team which destroys opposition like England for 74 needing 120 odd runs to win,deserves Grand Salute.Please don't forget Zulfiqar Babar and Raja Hassan are equally devastating if given opportunity.With Umar Akmal and Umar Amin in Test squad,it will be much harder for South Africans playing in UAE.

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ali

Oct 03, 2013 01:57am

The Pakistan spinners are not that strong to get SA out twice in a test match and their fielding is patchy and besides the batting is weak and nervous. But Whatmore is right when he says the younger Pakistan players are not getting exposure to develop because of no foreign teams visiting Pakistan and this situation is not expected to improve for another couple of years at least.

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Oct 03, 2013 02:52am

@Farha: You make your 'strategy' public to fool your bosses and fans so that they think you have a 'strategy' but in reality you don't have one.

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ivehadit

Oct 03, 2013 06:37am

How about avenging the defeat to Zimbabwe first? This emperor has no clothes.

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MKhan

Oct 03, 2013 07:54am

Yeah, sure make a spin trap and our batsmen will oblige by kneeling down before the lolly dollies of peterson, dumniy and king of wayward spin Mr Imran tahir. We have a wonderful history of making ordinary players look great and so called great as ordinary. Whatmore is the worst thing that could happened to Pakistan. Together with Misbah, he has adopted a policy of ruining young players while sticking to old expired products. I was not entirely convinced when he was appointed and now results have shown he is a flop who has caused a decline in our gradually climbing performance graph. If Waqar had overcome his personal bias against certain players and/or players from a particular region, he was the best coach Pakistan ever had but sadly his ego and politics inside dressing room cost him the job. There is a rotten culture of players power and players politics inside our dressing room which can only be get rid of by the appointment of a no nonsense selfless coach who is tough on these matters and is not politically biased. Rashid Latif name comes to mind but his professionalism and ethinic background will never let him become the coach of this pathetic setup.

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