‘Give Zim cricketers their due credit’

KARACHI — Chishty Mujahid is widely regarded as the grand old voice of Pakistani cricket, a legendary figure in Pakistani Cricket journalism and broadcasting whose name has become synonymous with Pakistani cricket’s best known triumphs. He was born in 1944 in New Delhi and after reading Law at the prestigious Selwyn College, Cambridge, Chishty at the age of 23, decided to take up Radio commentary on a part time basis.

Chishty moved to TV commentary on Pakistan Television (PTV) in 1970 and has continued to commentate in Pakistan and around the world.

He has also commentated for and appeared on Doordarshan, Rupavahini, Worldtel, Sony, South African Broadcasting Corporation, BBC (Urdu) Hum FM (U.A.E.) and writes on cricket for all major newspapers in Pakistan.

In an exclusive interview with PakPassion.net, Chishty who covered Pakistan’s recent tour of Zimbabwe as a TV commentator, provided a detailed insight on Pakistan’s performance and also suggested changes that could be implemented in the team with an eye on the upcoming series against South Africa.

PakPassion.net: In a nutshell, what do you think went wrong for Pakistan in Zimbabwe, particularly in the Test matches?
Chishty Mujahid: I don’t think there was anything wrong with the Pakistan team per se.

As you will recall, they lost the first ODI against Zimbabwe which must have been a shock after they had completely demolished the West Indies recently in a similar format.

Fact is that we have always underrated Zimbabwe – that is one thing that we should have guarded against.  They were even more underrated because of the Indian onslaught just about a month before we reached there although one should note that India didn’t play a Test match in that series.

Additionally, Zimbabwe are having their own problems in cricket, not only today but they have had them for a few years.  They also went into self-exile, self–suspension from Test matches for two or three years just to regroup, restructure, re-formulate.

Then they have had a funding problem as well.  They’ve also lost some very good players; Kyle Jarvis who I did not have the honour of seeing and also Sean Williams withdrew.

Then there were threats that the entire team might withdraw due to a contractual dispute. Thankfully in the end it all worked out.
Zimbabwe have a young side and it also has a bit of experience, they have a blend of youth and experience.

They haven’t got players with 80 Test matches or 4000-5000 runs, but they have got some very good players who have played against Pakistan with distinction including Brendon Taylor, Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda and a few others such as Prosper Utseya and Tinashe Panyangara.

They have all played against Pakistan as recently as 2011 – They were beaten but at the same time they got a bit of experience.
For Pakistan, there were no problems with their off-the-field dealings, that I can tell you.

They were a well behaved side, a very popular side and they went about their way with purpose.  This tour has been absolutely squeaky clean, although at times some eyebrows must have been raised somewhere but I think it’s absolute rubbish.

There was an ACSU man present there all the time and the Pakistanis behaved well, they behaved gracefully and graciously.
PakPassion.net: Were Zimbabwe a better side or is it the fact that Pakistan played poorly?

Chishty Mujahid: As you know that after having lost the first ODI, Zimbabwe came back very strongly.  If you analyse the first Test match, the first three and a half days belonged to Zimbabwe, so that should have been the signal that they are no pushovers, you can’t walk all over them and playing against them is not a walk in the park.

In the second innings they collapsed in about two and a half hours for about 120 runs which can be attributed to sheer inexperience and of course the brilliance of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman, and also the leadership of Misbah.

Then they regrouped after two days and came back strongly.  The pitch wasn’t the best of tracks that I have seen in Test cricket at Harare, because it had cracks on the first day and it was an unknown commodity because it was the first time that an international match was being played on it.

So neither side knew what it was like although the Zimbabweans had the advantage that they may have played franchise cricket, as they call it, on this track.

The other choice of ground was Bulawayo but we couldn’t go to Bulawayo due to logistical problems – read financial problems. If it was going to cost Zimbabwe US$50,000-60,000 then it’s better to play in Harare and get on with the commitment and not spend that much money and go further into the red as they already are.

Taylor won the toss and batted.  This was questioned by the experts because the pitch was unknown and it also could help the seamers in the first couple of hours because of the overnight moisture and juice, but he batted because he very intelligently did not want to face the ignominy of having to bat last against the likes of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman and the Pakistani pace bowlers.

So he took a logical decision and it proved right in the end, although their first wicket fell pretty cheaply.  The other thing which is very easy to forget over five days is the role of the tail of the Zimbabweans.

Numbers eight, nine, ten and eleven contributed 86 runs to the total and the last wicket pair yielded 44 runs.  Those were crucial and those were the difference in the end and you have to give them credit.

Then, of course, Pakistan batted badly.
Pakistan’s opening has always been a problem and continues to have problems.  It wasn’t a problem with the pair, it was one half of the pair.

Khurram Manzoor got a half-century in each innings of the 2nd Test.  He’s probably the first Pakistani in Test cricket this year to score a half-century in each innings.

The previous highest was Imran Farhat’s 43 against South Africa at Centurion, so you at least had one opener performing well.
But Mohammad Hafeez failed again with the bat.

Then the two youngsters – I call them youngsters because they’re less than 30 (27 and 28) – Azhar and Asad both failed with the veterans Younis and Misbah as your mainstays.

By the way, I don’t really know why we are talking about their ages like a broken record!  If you see Pakistan’s innings in the first Test match, there was Misbah at 39 years old, Younis Khan 36, Saeed Ajmal 35 going on to 36, Abdur Rehman 34 going on to 35.
These are your four main architects from the victory.

There is no such thing as old or young in Test cricket, or any cricket. It’s just fitness.  These two players, Misbah and Younis, are two of the fittest cricketers in the country, in the lineup, and probably in all of the international circuit.
The problem was the batting. That is where it went wrong.

The bowling is alright and the pace bowlers did well.  In the case of Saeed Ajmal in the 2nd Test match, it would appear that probably the Zimbabweans had done a lot of homework on him.

Remember, Grant Flower is their batting coach and they must have got some strategy against Saeed Ajmal.  Playing forward, playing off the pitch, trying to play from the palm in the air and in the end it worked.

They batted well and the Pakistanis of course couldn’t cope. The young pace battery of the Zimbabweans which is Chatara, Vitori and Panyangara kept to the basics.

Line and length, outside the off-stump, 4th, 5th and 6th stump and in the end the batsmen did play and make a mistake and that’s what the Pakistanis did.

The Zimbabweans didn’t field as they usually field, but they improved in the 2nd Test match from the 1st Test match. Pakistan’s problem, as I said earlier was their batting.

That is where it went wrong. The Zimbabweans of course had a point to prove and they proved it.  So what’s the hue and cry about? I don’t see any reason for that.

What we should say is simply “Well done Zimbabwe and commiserations Pakistan”.  All said and done, it is a simple fact that Zimbabwe played well and I went and congratulated the head of Zimbabwean cricket, Peter Chingoka, on his team’s fine display.

Alright, so let’s go back to the drawing board. Let’s find out what the problem is and ask “Where is our talent?” Who were the people who were left out of this team? You see, you’re having your own problems.

You have a board which is under some sort of litigation at the moment.  PakPassion.net: Exactly what problems are you alluding to? To the layman, it appears that Pakistan just did not have the skills to play a minnow?

Chishty Mujahid: For starters, we don’t have a chief selector.  The man who was nominated for chief selector became the manager of the Pakistan side and he proved to be a very good manager.

He was a relaxed manager, the Pakistan camp was relaxed but at the same time there was no indiscipline.  The “curfew” or whatever you call it was strictly imposed in the sense that the players themselves imposed it upon them.

Not once did the assistant manager, Shahid Aslam, say who is late or who is not late.  I didn’t hear of it and the management did well and the players behaved extremely well.

So, again, I don’t know what all the hue and cry is about?  Anyway in terms of problems, tell me, who’s your next captain? Have you groomed your future captain? Because I don’t see it. Hafeez is a very brilliant T20 captain and player.

He’s also a very good ODI player. Is he a Test player? Is he a Test captain yet? Shahid Afridi ran off from Test matches when he gave up the captaincy.

Younis Khan doesn’t want to be the captain.  You see, either take the tough decision like the South Africans did about a decade or dozen years ago.

You put in a 21-year-old and say alright here we go, and that’s what Graeme Smith was and he has captained the South African side for 100 matches or more very successfully.

Do we have anybody like Smith? We don’t have anyone. Do we have someone like Virat Kohli? Maybe we have. I don’t know.
I think Misbah is a very fine captain. If he’s not flamboyant, it doesn’t mean he does not have the control on his side.

He’s one of the few captains in International Cricket in any side, from Australia to Zimbabwe, whose performance as captain has shown a marked improvement than when playing as an ordinary player.

Whereas in other cases if you make a player a captain, his performance goes down. One such example is Ian Botham and the others are like Sachin Tendulkar and Tillakaratne Dilshan. So Misbah has improved and his captaincy has done him good. — PakPassion.net