Australia legend Matthew Hayden is displeased with the way Pakistan cricket has been functioning in the last few years. Hayden, who has worked with Pakistan in one capacity or another, was reacting to the recent chaos that Babar Azam’s team has descended into. After the second successive defeat in the three-Test rubber at Lord’s late last month, Pakistan sacked their head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul, as well as asked seven players to fly back home.
The whole thing has left a terrible taste in the mouth, not just for Pakistan fans but also for global cricket fans. Many a former cricketer has criticised the Mohsin Naqvi-Aaqib Javed combo, which has been calling the shots for the last couple of years. Talking about the recent upheaval, a sympathetic Hayden said, “I really enjoyed my time working with Pakistan. Nothing’s changed, though. You know, that is always the trouble. That’s not an environment, you know; a pressure cooker is an environment for the middle, not for all the other peripheral things that happen outside. And it’s just too difficult an environment to be consistent because this is the formula.” The 54-year-old, who played 101 Tests and 161 ODIs for Australia from 1994 to 2009, was on the Wisden Cricket podcast when he made those remarks.
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“Pakistan are always the dark horse because their natural talent is phenomenal. I mean, anyone who can see athletic ability can see that Pakistan has an abundance of it. The trouble is, it never gets focused because it’s never allowed to get focused. It’s always in chaos. They’re always standing on one toe, let alone two feet. So there’s no grounding. And that’s, you know, something that I did enjoy doing in the short time that I was with Pakistan [as a batting consultant in the 2021 T20 World Cup and as a mentor in the 2022 T20 World Cup]. It’s just getting things back on an even keel and not so frantic. So it’s very difficult for them,” added Hayden.
Pakistan, World Cup winners in 1992 and T20 World Cup winners in 2009, have been on a downward spiral for the past several years now. Their decline is quite similar to that of the West Indies. Hayden believes Pakistan is blessed with natural talent and that it’s the system there that has got in the way of growth and development.
“Pakistan is like the West Indies, who I specially mentioned, I would especially mention Pakistan as well, because you’ve got 350 million [actually close to 250 million] people in one country that adore cricket, and yet every opportunity, cricket doesn’t allow cricket to get played. And that old saying, it’s just not cricket, that is so important for this conversation with Pakistan. Because if you allow Pakistan and Pakistan allows Pakistan to just play freely and with trust, then they’ll take on anyone, as simple as that, because purely their athletic ability, like the West Indies, is supreme,” said Hayden.