All is not well in the selection of Pakistan teams. The selection committee under the chairmanship of Inzamam-ul-Haq has failed to develop any clear policy for selection of players for different teams. Since Inzamam took the charge, the team has performed well, especially in England Tests.
If a team performs well the mistakes are ignored. That is currently the case with our selection committee.
It is vital to debate the team performances. If the graph has gone up, was it due to honest selection of teams or is it due to the strategies of new coach Mickey Arthur? In my personal opinion, both are not the reasons behind improved Pakistan performances, during England and West Indies series.
There is a saying in cricket: “WE DID NOT WIN, THEY LOST THE GAME”. I think it can be said of Pakistan team’s recent wins.
After the debacle of World T20 and Asia Cup, sudden changes in team management, selection committee, a few unnecessary changes in the teams made the environment better for players. They backed the selection committee, team management, and gave 100 percent on the ground.
I have mentioned many times that the same group of players can perform better if there is trust.
Sudden changes in cricket setup create illusions among the players and develop confidence. They start playing with their full capacity without selfishness.
Most players have the same ability and cannot improve or develop new skills in such a short time. How can they start performing well all of a sudden! In fact they are average players. I am sure that when this illusion fades out and players again lose their confidence on team management and selection committee the team performance will be go down.
Media and cricket experts will get the opportunity to criticize the selection committee and players including team management.
In fact they do not have a policy. If they make an outline for selection of players for different teams, that will create trust on selection committee. Following are a few things that can serve as an outline for selection.
1. Domestic performances role in selection of teams
2. Establish players selection criteria.
3. Explain Fitness Standard.
4. Set Performance standard for batsman & Bowlers.
5. Fielding role in selection.
6. Different formats’ requirement for players for selection.
In the absence of a concrete selection policy following players have been ignored: Fawad Alam, Tabish Khan, Gulraiz Sadaf, Muhammad Asghar, Junaid Khan, Muhammad Naeem and Asif Zakir.
The following players have been poorly handled: Sohail Khan, Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad, Imran Khan Junior.
Following players have got more chances than they have deserved: M Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Umer Amin, Ehsan Adil.
For the time being the team is performing well and we should appreciate. The New Zealand and Australia tours will be a litmus test to judge the performance of the selection committee and the team management.