Wednesday, October 17, 2001 Congratulations to Mudassar Nazar, I wish him well as Pakistan coach (see news story). I don't mind who the coach is -- although lots of people will try and convince you otherwise -- as long as Pakistan are successful. He has been running Pakistan's academy, he knows the boys, and he has been coach before, in 1992-93 after I lost the Pakistan captaincy. Because of the domestic season the academy is quiet and it probably makes sense, from the PCB's point of view, to shuffle Mudassar to the national squad.

The PCB made a lot of noises about their desire for a foreign coach and I am not sure that has changed, even though Richard Pybus has decided to stay at home. Persuading any foreigner to come here would be testing the limits of their loyalty to Pakistan cricket. Even England are having second thoughts about touring India, and I do not blame the players because it is risky for them to come to this region at the moment. Apart from what is happening in Afghanistan there are reports that trouble in Kashmir is escalating. As much as we all want the tour to go ahead, it will be difficult for the England players to focus on the cricket.

Meanwhile, I don't think the leading players will object to Mudassar getting the job. He is knowledgeable about cricket but favours defence over attack, much in the way that he batted. There was a brief overlap during our careers and I remember that Mudassar was always boisterous until the match started, when he would suddenly become tense. Imran [Khan] and I used to pull his leg about why he had gone quiet, but he would stay in that mode for the whole match. His style will be non-confrontational, complementing the wishes of the captain and players rather than dictating to them.

In fact Mudassar's appointment is a quick and convenient decision for the PCB. It allows them to save some money. Pakistani rates do not generally compare with those offered to foreigners, which is a particularly important consideration for the PCB these days. For that same reason, I believe that the PCB has no other option than to stage matches at neutral venues. If there are doubts about India, the prospect of anyone daring to make a trip to Pakistan is a long way off.

Mudassar's main challenge will be to revive Pakistan's strategy, primarily for the next World Cup but also for the World Test Championship. He has to eliminate sudden dips in Pakistan's performance and achieve more consistency without suffocating the natural flair that makes Pakistan so exciting.

Our cricket has undergone many changes in the past year. Apart from this new cricket academy, we've had foreign coaches like Geoffrey Boycott and Pybus passing on their wisdom, and there have been attempts to nurture young players and those from less well-known regions. But it is hard to work out what Pakistan has gained, if anything, from these initiatives. We might have a settled team but there are no obvious reserves to step in if a player gets injured or loses form, which is one of the reasons Australia are so successful.

There are also one or two holes in the line-up, like the uncertainty over an opening partner for Saeed Anwar. Taufeeq Umar started well against Bangladesh, but there will be sterner tests. The board's current policy is to keep experimenting with the same pool of reserve players without any clear signal that any of them are either firmly established in the squad or have been discarded for good. This uncertainty is not a recipe for success.

Hiring coaches for short spells will not help Pakistan's strategy either. Mudassar is now stepping into the limelight. Time will tell if he is the man for it.

Javed Miandad, Pakistan's highest-scoring batsman and latterly their coach, was talking to Kamran Abbasi. His column appears at Wisden.com every Wednesday.

More from Javed Miandad
Stop experimenting, England
Regions are not the answer

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