These were the remarks of one of our fans on the recent Afridi debacle. However, I feel we need to look at the bigger picture since the issue really is the future of Pakistan Cricket team. There have been so many views from all corners including past players, politicians, general public regarding what needs to be done to change the course of cricket in Pakistan. The solutions ranging from changing of captain to dropping players to changing the cricket board chairman. Some would go as far as saying that cricket shall be banned from Pakistan. Frankly speaking, every such thing has been tried. The results are always on the negative side. It is also notable that every former cricketer believes there is lot of talent in Pakistan; only the problem that the system needs better organizers. I believe there is one aspect that everyone is missing out in all this discussion. There seems to be a wide spread lack of discipline amongst the current cricketing lot. To me, this lack of discipline is something that needs to be taken seriously and dealt with.

Pakistan has always complained about the domestic structure. For whatever reasons, the structure still remains the same and doesn’t seem to produce the results for them. Still talented individuals come about from nowhere really. These youngsters model themselves on cricketing heroes of their times. This is the inspirational source that produced all the fast bowlers that Pakistan cricket boasts about. It is a fact that any field of the life and in any region of the world young generation gets inspiration and models themselves on their heroes. This is where I believe Pakistan is lacking. If we go into the era of 60s, 70s till mid 80s one will find cricketing heroes like Hafeez Kardar, Fazal Mehmood, Hanif Mohammad and Imran Khan. All these were internationally recognized and respected not only for their cricketing heroics but their gentleman attitude towards the game. The generation that was blooming in the 90s had people like Wasim, Waqar, Inzamam, Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail who would always tell the world that their inspirational models were greats like Imran and Javed Miandad. Most readers would remember that Pakistan was at their peak in the 90s also winning the world cup in 92. However, something seriously went wrong afterwards.

The problem started in that period and continues till today. Player revolts, drug incidents, fighting incidents etc. became a routine in the post Imran Khan Era. This problem has worsened today.  The Pakistani young cricketers of today are following the ‘role models’ that are leading them to all sorts of wrong directions. Almost every other guy in the team has either an established discipline related issue or the non established (unauthentic) one. Nevertheless, everything is in the media and the youngster is in for a problem since he’s following the ‘wrong heroes’.

Consider this:

• Shahid Afridi: The ball biting hero who has also been caught on camera damaging the pitch in the past. On top of that his unusual style of play has really damaged the young generation as they don’t want to play with a straight bat and want to hit every ball for six.
• Shoaib Malik: His dressing room attitude was questioned recently by a section of Pakistani press. Earlier he has been in the press for a marriage conflict with an Indian girl.
• Younis Khan: Inconsistent attitude towards game. Resigned days before a major tournament, then took back the resignation. Recent incident was that he went on a fishing trip to some remote area and didn’t attend the selection meeting for the tour.
• Muhammad Asif: After being sent back from the Champions Trophy caught taking banned substances, he still had enough depth in his character to get caught with drugs in the UAE.
• Shoaib Akhtar: Do I need to write something?

The list can go further than this and the traces of this can also be found back in time where Waqar, Wasim and Aqib were caught on a West Indian beach with some drugs. Generally the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been supportive of their players and this attitude has always led to even more indiscipline. With these sorts of role models and a really feeble domestic structure I don’t understand how Pakistan cricket would survive the competitive times ahead.

I don’t know if all the readers would agree to this, and I would love to have some comments, but concluding the post, if someone asks me for a one word solution to all of Pakistan cricket’s problems. My answer would definitely be ‘DISCIPLINE’.

We have not been winning matches which means we are not really familiar to the winning culture. For the winning culture, a team culture is as important as the team itself. The Pakistan team comprises players coming from various areas of the country. Whenever a new player walks into the national side, it is seen often that instead of adopting the team culture, he brings his own to the side, and honestly speaking he is not at fault either because there is no ‘team culture’ which exists here that can help the newcomer to shape in. This ‘individual culture’ is extremely damaging for the team because it gets uglier with the passage of time, pollutes the atmosphere of the dressing room, and ultimately results in disintegration.

If the majority of players belong to a certain region in the country, the language spoken by them eventually becomes the language of the dressing room. This often makes others feel isolated and neglected and affects their performance. At one point in time, the Indian cricket team faced similar problems but the BCCI worked hard to resolve all such issues and it worked wonders for their side’s morale. To overcome all the above mentioned issues, a code of conduct is the need of the hour.

The implementation of a certain code of conduct could surely pave the way for developing a team culture which, in turn, will eliminate all kinds of groupings among the players. But it has been achieved in the past. It was Imran Khan’s era and he managed to cultivate a team culture which prevailed over everything else and did Pakistan proud. Unfortunately, it ended completely in the six to eight years of his departure.

Developing team culture is not something that is achieved overnight. Besides the captain, the coach is the key person who can achieve that, with hard work and skills. A good coach never delegates this responsibility to the players. All over the world, when the coaches talk about ‘turning a team around,’ they recognise they need to change the team culture.

If a coach shows keen interest in the performance of the players, helps in sorting out their problems with wisdom and patience, works on their techniques, he will most likely be able to extract good result. The players will take pride in their achievements, in being a part of the team and will start believing in themselves. This could boost the decision-making process, which is the key in cricket.

There are clear signs which indicate that team culture is in tatters. Firstly, when the team is playing below its capability, when the team support staff is constantly complaining, there is visible conflict in decision making on the field and when there is little response from them at the team meetings.

Some coaches also err by not fully grasping the importance of team culture and its intricacies. If your team is experiencing internal friction, simply announcing that ‘we’ll have no more bickering in the team’ will not do anything.

In such times, one must work hard to discover what is interfering with the team culture and devise a strategy to remove the obstacles to put the right system in place. Tinkering with team culture thoughtlessly can be devastating. Thus it is vital that you involve the other members of setup in determining the problems, and removing them.

Problems may also occur when captains and coaches have certain expectations of some players while giving less weight-age to the others. Nobody performs poorly because they don’t try but they need to be guided and groomed. You need to be vigilant in guarding against communicating low expectations to your players based on cultural differences. It is a very subtle, but powerful and destructive form of discrimination and must be avoided at all cost.