IT is heartening to see that some of the big names of Pakistan cricket have been honest enough to recently admit that the players representing the national team lack the capacity to perform at top level.

While each and every one of us agree that there is abundance of cricketing talent around, the fact remains that talent alone is not enough to perform at international level. We need highly-skilled players, developed through a system, but unfortunately Pakistan lacks that system as well as the right approach to organize things.

I have said many times in the past that majority of the players in Pakistan are average, really, and only perform in ideal conditions. They lack the ability and guts to sustain pressure and fail to perform whenever faced with challenges and varied playing conditions.

I think it is now over ten years since I have been advising the PCB to look for the causes and not for the symptoms to improve Pakistan cricket team’s performance. I had predicted on the social media before the World T20 tournament that Pakistan will be eliminated in the group matches and gave three reasons for it. Number one was the fitness level of the team, the second was fielding and the third was team management’s inconsistent decision-making. A lot of people had criticised me at the time, but they have now begun to agree.

Whenever the Pakistan team performs badly, everyone starts making a noise. Even those who do not have a clue about the game start posing as experts and senselessly criticise the players without ever analysing the facts. Their comments often lack logic and expose their poor knowledge of the game. This reminds me of the age-old adage, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth.’

Unfortunately, the PCB in so many years has been unable to identify people who really understand the game, particularly modern cricket. It has been mentioned countless times before that everyone who has played international cricket does not necessarily qualify to become a coach or an expert of the game’s technicalities. If this was true, then the cricket heavyweights attached with the PCB would have guided Pakistan to endless glory. But they have failed to do so, rather miserably.

It is now time for chairman Najam Sethi to know that the game could only be improved if it is in the hands of competent, qualified people who know the game and its intricacies inside out. In fact, there are such people available in the PCB fold even today, it is just a question of giving them a chance to prove their mettle.

A new phenomenon has been gaining ground in the PCB; that players of the 1970s era could not deliver because they are not well-versed with modern day cricket. There’s a case being made for the players of the 90s because they ‘supposedly’ know the modern trends of the game. This, I am sorry to say, is a baseless propaganda from a particular group of people who want to control the game and influence the PCB for a few more years in making all the wrong decisions.

The same set of people have ruined Pakistan cricket by promoting the foreign coaches who have proved no good so far. This foreign coach notion may be right to some extent but involving untrained and unqualified people in coaching is even worse.

It is time to realise the facts and the PCB must trust their own developed coaches and other team staff and give them opportunity to display their calibre and expertise. The modern day coaching staff must understand biomechanics, use of technology, communication skills MBTI, SWOT analysis and overall basic skills.

The key is to judge as to what type of set-up Pakistan cricket needs and for that, the PCB does not need to look further than the set-ups of top teams in world cricket like Australia, India, South Africa and a few others.

I must mention that Pakistan cricket should be revamped from the base (club and district), which is a long-term programme indeed. We need to improve our first-class set-up which should be our mid-term goal, but the immediate goal should be to improve Pakistan team’s performance.

Pakistan team’s graph can only improve if confidence is given to the players, certain targets are set to judge performance standards, merit prevails in team selection and there’s accountability of all players and officials no matter how big they are.

The confidence will only come when players start trusting the PCB, the selection committee and the team management. Once the confidence is there, the team starts performing as a unit and plays according to match requirement and, of course, for the country.

I would like to advise Mr Sethi to judge people who know the game by giving them the chance to discuss cricket and its finer points with him. Ideally, the chairman should arrange a two-day seminar on cricketing issues, invite only those players who have served the country for a longer period as well as the qualified and competent master coaches. Give both set of people a fair chance to speak on Pakistan cricket problems and their respective solutions.

A clear distinction can then be made on how to go about rebuilding Pakistan cricket, with whose help and under whose guidance. I request Mr Sethi to kindly make such an effort, for once, to understand better the politics of Pakistan cricket or be prepared to see Pakistan cricket decline even further in the coming decade.

The writes is a former Test cricketer and Level IV coach