Mickey Arthur seems to have a love-hate relationship with Pakistan cricket. The South African coach has had two stints with the PCB, which have ended with him getting removed both times. Despite that, Mickey has never come out and criticized an individual but has rather blamed Pakistan cricket’s whole ecosystem.
After Pakistan’s middling performance in the ODI World Cup 2023, all three foreign coaches, Mickey Arthur, Grant Bradburn, and Andrew Puttick, were removed. However, that wasn’t Mickey’s role when he took the job in April. He had joined the Pakistan cricket team as their director but was downgraded after the World Cup.
In an interview with Wisden, a few days after what was labeled as an amicable split, Mickey Arthur bashed the whole ecosystem of Pakistan cricket, labeling them as their own worst enemy.
Mickey Arthur on Pakistan cricket being its own worst enemy
When asked: Finally, as a coach, do you believe Pakistan cricket will ever evolve in terms of its current domestic infrastructure, and what steps should be put in place to allow Pakistan’s players to progress further and compete in the modern era?
Mickey Arthur responded: How long have you got? I continually witness Pakistan cricket nailing itself in the foot. The talent is there, what it needs is a good structure, good leadership, as well as continuity and sustainability, along with proper direction.
Through 2016-2019, and thanks to Najam (Sethi), we had the players trusting the process. So, when I’d sit down with Inzi (Inzamam Ul Haq) with whom I have a brilliant working relationship, and selected a team and then communicated this with the team, they knew there was a sustainable structure there, because me and Inzi were providing a form of continuity. I can then say to a player, take Fakhar for an example, that you’re going to play the next ten ODIs. We know he will win us games, it’s high risk at times, but at least this way the players start trusting the structure and believing in the selection process, and play for the team.
If it’s constant change and instability, players go into self-protection mode, and they end up playing for themselves, just thinking about the next tour. It’s frustrating to witness that because players aren’t given a proper chance, there’s no honest communication and they know things are always going to change.
Domestically there’s so much talent out there. As I mentioned earlier, we put together a high-performance structure which we were going to implement, but this got lost in the wash with the change of chairmanship. Again very disappointing. I still think Pakistan cricket shoots itself in the foot and could be better.
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