ODI World Cup 2023 is on and the fever is catching up. Cricket though played with the same bat and ball, is a different game now with support staff, analysis and more. Minnows have participated in WC before – in the inaugural WC – East Africa participated but this is the first time the premier tournament without participation of the once mighty West Indies !!
Some of you may not remember that Kapil Devils of 1983 was a lean team – Sunil Valson travelled with the team without playing a single match and PR Man Singh was the only official – the Team Manager. A right-handed batsman and off break bowler Man Singh played Ranji for Hyderabad and was the manager in 1983 and in 1987.
At Ahmedabad, India handed another defeat to Pakistanis in WC – mauled badly. The present Pak team has the following support staff : Rehan-ul-Haq (team manager), Mickey Arthur (Director – Pakistan men’s team), Grant Bradburn (head coach), Andrew Puttick (batting coach), Morne Morkel (bowling coach), Aftab Khan (fielding coach), Abdul Rehman (assistant coach), Dr Sohail Saleem (team doctor), Drikus Saaiman (strength and conditioning coach), Cliffe Deacon (physiotherapist), Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi (media and digital content manager), Usman Anwari (security manager), Maqbool Ahmad Babri (psychologist), Talha Ejaz (analyst) and Malang Ali (masseur).
The coach, named as Director – Mickey Arthur - John Michael Arthur hails from South Africa and had coached SA & Australian teams, also served as the head coach of the Derbyshire County Cricket Club and now the director of the Pakistan national cricket team since April 2023.
He coached the South African national team from 2005 to 2010, was the coach of the Australia national cricket team from 2010 until his sacking in June 2013 (then to be replaced by Darren Lehmann) and was the coach of the Pakistan cricket team from 2016 to 2019. In Dec 2019, Mickey was appointed as the new head coach of Sri Lanka by the Sri Lanka Cricket replacing interim coach Rumesh Ratnayake.
The job of the coach is to prepare the team but Paki team director Mickey Arthur made a bizarre and controversial comment on the ambience and the arrangement at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad after the team's brutal loss against India in World Cup 2023. This certainluy did not go down well with the cricket fraternity and was brutally trolled. Besides being mocked by fans, former India cricketers, Pakistan cricket legends have also lashed out at Arthur's remark. On Monday, ICC responded to the criticism made by Arthur.
Following their eighth World Cup loss against India, the joint-most by a side against a single opposition, Arthur complained about the partisan crowd and no Pakistani music being played at the venue which made him feel like a "BCCI event than ICC".
He stated that - no fans from Pakistan were granted visas to travel to India for the World Cup! - why should a Coach be worried about this and speaking on this. Granting visas is Nation’s prerogative and why should India in the garb of Cricket match allow all and sundry from the land of Pakistan. This being an International event, Paki team was allowed to be in India but we do not want people from the land that abets terrorism and has been a hostile neighbour.
Akram lashed out at Arthur's comment while analysing the game for Pakistan-based sports channel A Sports and asked for some solid answers instead of random stuff. He asked what were your plans against Kuldeep Yadav – no point in talking about the crowd and whether there were visas.
Mickey perhaps knows no history of Sporting relations. In the 1989-90 season, Krishnamachari Srikkanth-led Team India went on a tour of Pakistan for a 4-match Test and 3-match ODI series. The opening game of the tour was abandoned without a single delivery being bowled. Pakistan eventually won the second ODI in Karachi after which the focus shifted towards the third game. After the Pakistan top order failed to impress, fans went too far and started throwing stones at the Indian fielders in the third ODI. Things got so out of hand that the game had to stopped and later when it restarted in Lahore, Pakistan won the game and the hosts won the series 2-0.
Well, he may not know Indo-Pak but crowd behaviour has been boorish in South Africa and Australia too. Back in Mar 2018, many Australian players were subjected to verbal abuse from fans, including references to players' families, Australia coach Darren Lehman decried.
In every country, Sports fans are passionate, in some places there are unruly too. It appears that it could well be football supporters at the top of the list but rugby crowds are not far behind. A couple of years back crowd violence at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban cast the behaviour of South African sports fans directly in the spotlight. The destruction of broadcast cameras, stadium chairs, and injuries caused created the impression that football fans are notorious for poor behaviour.
Mickey might well concentrate on playing the game on the field rather than empty prattles !!
With regards – S Sampathkumar
18.10.2023
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