Former Pakistan cricket team coach Saqlain Mushtaq reacted to the reports regarding the fight between Mohammad Yousuf and Shaheen Afridi. He said that it is very unfortunate that such things happen and the administration should have the solution for all the problems.

Pakistan national cricket team has been embroiled in many controversies lately. Their performances have also not been up to the mark as they have had some of the worst matches in international cricket and have faced a lot of criticism for their poor performance.

Apart from this, there have also been several reports regarding indiscipline in the team during the 2024 T20 World Cup. It was learnt that Shaheen Afridi was the main culprit as head coach Gary Kirsten also complained about him to the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Gary Kirsten accused Shaheen Afridi of misbehaving in the team and disturbing the atmosphere of the team. After that, even the chairman of the board of directors declared that they would not tolerate any indiscipline in the team.

There were also reports suggesting that Pakistan batting coach Shaheen Afridi had heated arguments with batting coach Mohammad Yousuf during Pakistan’s T20I tour of England. This was because the coach pointed out to him that the fast bowler had no balls and the fast bowler told him to mind his own business.

Speaking on the issue, Saqlain Mushtaq said that management and coaches are responsible for how they will approach such situations and how they will talk to the players in a unique way. He also stressed that even if the coach’s command is not strong, he should show himself as if he knows everything. Speaking on Cricket Pakistan’s YouTube channel, he explained:

“I will say with great regret that I don’t know how these things came out. Look, is this a failure of the coaches or the management? The management or the coaches should have solutions for everything. If we assume that no one listens to anyone, no one agrees. How will you speak? Find an opportunity. Find a way. Find the time. How will you speak? Make him realize. After that, say that this is how it is. If you say, no, no, not like that. Will you fight? Will you fight at that time? If you get to this level, your management skills should be very good.

“Even if you don’t have a mastery and you go and ask him questions or start a conversation, the next person should know that he is also very knowledgeable in this field. I can’t believe that a cricketer who has played cricket has played enough; if he is a bowler, then he knows how to bat. Look, the coin has two sides: heads and tails. If he is a batsman, then he is looking at the batting side. If he is a bowler, then he is looking at the bowling side.”

Saqlain Mushtaq further highlighted how the relationship between players and coaches works, noting that when he was the coach of the teams, the batsmen used to ask him for advice.

“If the bowler doesn’t look at the batsman, how he is playing the shots, what his tactics are, how he makes those runs, where his flaws are and how I will catch him, how he will catch me, then it means he is not a bowler. And if a batsman doesn’t know anything about the bowler, then he is not a batsman. I have been with England, New Zealand, Bangladesh and West Indies, and I have even worked with Pakistan.

“Batsmen used to come to me and talk a lot. They used to talk a lot about Australia. That he is bowling, where will I get runs? And what shot will be taken? And how do you look at the batsman while he is bowling? This is a cycle that the bowler completes and the batsman also completes. What are your intentions? What do you want to do against the bowler? How do you play? Intention. Then you bowl or bowl against him in your imagination.

“You bowl it in your imagination and he’s playing to me like this, I’ll bowl it here, in your imagination, I’ll bowl like this, he’ll bowl here, this ball will go like this, or I’ll get it off short leg, or I’ll get it off the slip, or he’ll step off the front foot, or I’ll create a dot like this. So, intention, imagination, then execution. Then you do that.”

Trust is the key, it is very important for coaches to trust the players – Saqlain Mushtaq

Saqlain Mushtaq further explained how batsmen and bowlers prepare and pointed out that all coaches work together to improve the players. He stressed that the relationship between players and coaches is like that of the soul and the body.

Talking about a heated argument between Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Yousuf, he said that trust is the key and if the pacer did that, he made a mistake as he did not want to learn. He added:

“So, you bowl in your imagination. And when you’re executing, it’s a replay for you. And for the player or the spectator, that’s the actual pitch. The bowler has already bowled in his imagination. So, this is a replay. And after the replay, he sees what the batter played, what I did, what my intentions were, what my imaginations were, what my execution was.

“After that, he goes into observation. He sees what he did, what I did, what he should have done, how he should have caught him. Again he figures out the observation, makes the intention, imagination and execution, and goes into observation. Similarly, the batsman also does it. What is the bowler doing? How is he batting? How will I bowl to him? Where will he give me the runs? What fielding setup has he made?

“So, you have to work as a team; all the coaches work as a team; the batting coaches meet with the bowling coaches to discuss the plans. The players also work as a team. Mohammad Rizwan used to come to me to ask about the plans to play sweep shots. “Trust is the key; coaches trusting players is very important. It’s a relationship like that between the soul and the body. When the coach or the pitcher hears all these things, they feel very bad. But if the pitcher says this, he is making a mistake because he doesn’t want to learn and if a coach does this kind of things, he is stupid,” he concluded.