The Unlikely Captain

By Ali Aftab Saeed:

It is often said that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”. M. Hafeez was made the captain of our T20 team on 8th May I guess and I wrote an article on him on May 15th.The bashing I got for this article equals to what the trolls do to you when you tantalize their sensitive spot as if I had blasphemed against Imran khan. You don’t have to read the full article, the sub heading says it all…. ‘You shouldn’t be in the team so lets make you the captain’.
Perhaps people don’t usually watch cricket as much as they follow the records. He was in some sort of an all round ranking hence I failed to convince the people that he isn’t worthy of a spot in the international team notwithstanding his great reputation as a great cricketing brain. I firmly believe that he was in the ranking because of his bowling rather than batting which is what he came in the side for. His initial success with bowling came because he deceived the world with trying to spin the ball, which never spun. Unlike Kumble, who managed a long career though he did not have the spin but his ball at least used to drift and bounce awkwardly; it looked highly unlikely for Hafeez to continue that long had he been in any other team.
It is very early to say anything about the young Raza but I am enraged when Pakistani analysts wax eloquent of Pakistan’s great spin attack. We don’t. We have Ajmal and others who take wickets because every team wants to go after them to avoid trying to hit Ajmal. But let’s get back to Hafeez. I don’t see him taking too many wickets now until it is Zimbabwe he is bowling against. By the way while writing this I just saw his stats and he does not have an exceptionally good bowling record either.
He has an average of 27 and strike rate of 68 in 107 ODI’s. What sort of an average and strike rate is this for an opener who refuses to bat down the order even if it takes sending Nasir Jamshed at three. In T20’s too he averages 21 and his strike rate is 109. Both figures are highly unsatisfactory and the result of a lot of matches against Bangladesh and lesser teams.
I gave the stats just because people take them more seriously than the potential of the player, which manifests itself when the batsman is on the crease even if he hasn’t done much. Hafeez is allegedly a stroke maker who doesn’t have too many strokes in his book. Apart from that he has serious issues with his technique. He is easy prey for any good opening fast bowler who can bring the new ball into the batsman, as he tends to plant his front foot on middle stump, premeditating a shot on offside and falling on the ball trying to play it across the line to the onside. That is why he gets either bold or LBW on most of the occasions.
Analysts like Raja consider his pull shot his strongest point wheras it is pathetic because he is always late on the short ball. He has never played a pull shot to square leg where it should be played ordinarily. He barely manages to hit the pull shot to mid wicket of a short ball from a medium pacer. He whips the ball to square leg at times but that is when the ball is a little short of good length not a proper short ball.
People who have finally realized that he isn’t the one we need have started comparing him with Misbah. That is again very unfortunate because Misbah could hit though he refrained for reasons known to him only. This guy does not have the potential to lift the ball over the fielders. Except from the slog sweep to a spinner and a cover drive for which the ball should be pitched on the sweetest spot within the half volley region, placing the ball in other parts of the ground is lacking, That reminds me that he along with the entire team are absolutely inept at taking the single, whether quick or an easy one, the real match winner in my opinion. Ever notice him when he is on the non striker’s end he often goes to the other batsman and tells them to slow down perhaps to make his dull batting look inconspicuous.
I cannot help feeling that our selectors as well as PCB higher-ups take commentators and “pundits” a bit too seriously. With all that money involved, cricketing in third world is all about lobbying and campaigning.I envy great teams where you never hear terms like Mr. Talented for Kohli, AB Deviliers and Watson even though they all are match-winners and can single-handedly turn a game on its head? The crazy propaganda generated for or against certain players by self-proclaimed pundits has harmed us more than Afghan war. I totally disregarded the rumor that I heard but people have started saying that Ramiz Raja is the Mazhar Majeed of M. Hafeez.
Lets come to the professor bit. He makes weird strategies. Cricket isn’t rocket science nor chess. It is more of common sense that is required. He like Younis Khan who was also out of place while captaining our T20 side (Even though we won under his captaincy). Tries to be different in his strategy to justify his inclusion in the team. From taking the bowler out of attack who just took a wicket to not keeping a slip when defending a low scoring match and saving the best bowler for the last overs when what’s really required are wicket shows that he knows he will lose the match anyway. It is just a miracle he awaits that would change the course of the match instead of making it happen. I think Whitmore should take over all the responsibility of selecting the team, the Captain and award six of the best to every batsman as he returns to the pavilion if they don’t have enough singles against their names. Leaving it to Pakistanis brings in other factors. It is a different matter that a coach with such powers may be tempted to start a bookie club on the side.
A captain’s place in the team must be secure no matter how great a tactician he may be. Professor or not, if one doesn’t absolutely deserve a place in the playing 11, one can’t expect to command respect of one’s charge. We do a great disservice to Imran Khan when we say that we won the world cup because of his captaincy. We won because of his performance as a player as well as his captaincy not to mention the nice little fluke that took us to the semi-final.
I wish Pakistan all the success in this T20 and other tournaments to come but these 31 and over players are no Tendulkars and must be replaced by young 16 and 17 years old with a keen eye and good reflexes.