Oh dear, I’m afraid I can go one forever on this subject, but I’ll try to make this reasonably brief.

My fundamental conclusion to why there we have produced so many ‘could have beens’ is lack of professionalism.

How can you expect a side to produce consistent results when you’ve had 9 coaches and as many captain in as many years (or something ridiculous to that affect)?

When you give players stability, they respond, and by and large, that’s the affect Woolmer has had. Players like Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik, both now integral to the one-day side, and on the fringe of the test side, are perfect examples. Asim Kamal is now gradually coming along as well, and Kamran Akmal has been a great find.

I disagree with Worma though when he (or she?) says we can become world beaters just by virtue of sheer talent. This is an ideological theory, but the world isn’t ideal, at least the world of sport isn’t as far as I know.

Some of the most successful players in the history of the game were not even the most talented members of their family (Steve Waugh)! And on the other hand there are numerous examples of very talented players not being that successful at all (the most glorified example being Graeme Hick).

Talent is just one of the ingredients of success, you have to harness it to get the best out of it. Otherwise it can, believe it or not, become the very reason for your undoing.

Our problem sometimes is that some players have far too much talent then they can handle (numerous examples of this, stretching from Afridi to the likes of Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Imran Nazir and Naved Latif, etc etc etc).

At other times our problem is the lack of consistency on the part of the selectors (and sadly this was quite frequent up until recent times). And on other occasions, just plain old lack of performance.

Who can we blame for the shocker of the performances we produced during the World Cup in 2003? You couldn’t have blamed the selectors or the lack of talent or anything else, that was one of the strongest squads on paper Pakistan ever send to a world cup, yet we produced one of our worst ever performances.

The problem then was underperforming players, a whole group of fix or six may be more - people who had just gone completely AWOL for no apparent reason.

In a recent interview of Robert, he related to a story of an unnamed young player, with whom he spend 3 hours working on fault in his technique, next morning when he went out to bat, he forget (literally) everything he was told and got out making the very same mistake. THAT is how impulsive some of our talent can be.

KP can hit a ball hard, really hard. So can Flintoff. Take my word on it Afridi can hit it harder then either of these two or anyone you will ever see.

Tresco’s talent is that he has a great eye, Yasir Hameed has a great eye too, and the same can be said with a level of security about Imran Farhat.

Harmison’s talent is that he can bowl fast. That is also the talent of Sami and Shoaib and countless others (there is an unexplainable obsession with bowling fast in the youngsters).

But what’s the difference between these players? The ratio of talent to skill. Being able to time and place a ball, being able to hit it hard, and get it out of the middle, is a great natural asset, not everyone has that (ask Mark Richardson or Gary Kirsten for instance), so is the ability to bowl fast (Glenn McGrath would love a few extra yards of pace I’m certain).

But what will make you succeed at the highest level is when you know when to use your talent and when to adapt. Some of our players are just mentally incapable to do so.

If you go out there mindlessly trying to hit every ball for a six or a four or bowl every ball at 90 miles an hour regardless of

- how good/bad the ball is or
- what the capabilities of the batsmen you’re bowling to are or
- what the conditions are or
- what the match situation is

then you’ll forever remain an inconsistent performer.

They players who have been successful for us off late by and large (Yousuf, Inzi, Akmal and Malik excluding perhaps) are not the most naturally gifted of souls - Younis Khan is nudler, he grinds his runs, Asim Kamal is no different, Rana Naved is not overtly naturally gifted either, he is just an obsessive compulsive hard worker - as is Kaneria, even though he does have more innate ability then Rana.

But essentially these players have achieved what they have so far (be it limited) because they are/were immensely determined to so, and because they didn’t fall back on they tag of them being talented (which is what some of the others have done / do ). They have worked hard, others haven’t, or not as much as they should have.

Our problem is not talent, never has been, never will be (such is the nature of the game at the grass root levels), it is about application and professionalism. We’ve made a good start on these fronts, but it’s slow and long road ahead. But since I can’t EVER see the point in being pessimistic, I’m confident one day in the not so distant future we’ll get where there. ATM we’re still in stage transition.

Simple reason: Street cricket and lack of professional standards of crickting facilities at root level. Pakistani team is mostly raw talent produced by street cricket (tape ball) and polished when one reaches U-19/++ Pakistani side.

Cheers,

Abbas