'Fear of defeat cost Pakistan the series'

By Rizwan Ehsan Ali

KARACHI, DEC. 11. Fear of defeat at home cost Pakistan yet another series loss on Monday and the top bosses of the Pakistan Cricket Board must be scratching their heads as to what went wrong against Nasser Hussain's determined England side.

Gone were the days when Pakistan used to be a real hard nut to crack in their own backyard. The series losses at the hands of Australia, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and now England shows that even preparing dead wickets or laying surfaces which suit spinners is not the answer to success.

To be honest, England played far better than the ill- planned bunch of Pakistan players and a 34-match unbeaten record at the National Stadium in Karachi was duly broken by Graham Thorpe and Nasser Hussain's will to fight just before it went completely dark.

``I don't think we need to blame anyone other than ourselves. If we had been in England's place we would have also wanted to bat on. The umpires should not be blamed. We just need to do some soul-searching ourselves,'' Zia said.

Consistency, which the PCB hierarchy claims it wants to develop in the team, can be gauged by the fact that not two same set of 11 players were pitted in the three-Test series.

``We never got our pitches right nor our planning. If our batsmen can't survive three sessions on such a true pitch, then obviously you we bound to lose,'' Zia said referring to Pakistan's second innings collapse on Monday morning when the home team lost six wickets for just 30 runs to set up England a target of 176 off 44 overs.

Left-handed 19-year-old all-rounder Qaiser Abbas was given a tough punishment from dropping a catch of Graham Thorpe in the first Test and was dropped after playing just one innings in his debut Test.

On the other hand, the key to England's success, was that it kept faith on the same players, who played from the start of the series, for big occasion.

Matthew Hoggard, the England pace bowler claimed 17 wickets in two tour games, but the tourists kept faith in leg- spinner Ian Salisbury, who ended up a miserable series by claiming just one wicket in three games.

Pakistan's defensive approach right from the start of the first Test at Lahore was a clear indicator that the cricket administrators had just draw on their minds.

``I guess that's true. We were scared to lose from the start. Our approach was negative,'' concedes Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia, Chairman of the PCB.

The first Test pitch was described as `spinners' minefield,' where both teams scored 400-plus! The second strip at Faisalabad was predicted by coach Javed Miandad as a sharp turner by the end of third day's play. In the end it was England, which had to decide whether it would go for the victory target of 244 in 62 overs or to play a draw.

``I will be meeting the players in two days time and we need to do some serious soul-searching as to where we are going wrong. This is not the way for Pakistan cricket to go on. We need to get our priorities right,'' Tauqir Zia said.

Now Zia wants all his players to compete in domestic cricket so that players should be selected after going through the process. We have to stop this selection process of picking up players from a set of 16 to 18 players. I want every player to compete in domestic cricket since India is not coming to Pakistan and if the player performs then only he should be selected on the national team.

Zia's plan to make it a must for a player to compete in domestic cricket is a good sign as it would give Pakistan selectors to pick the best available in-form players before the team flies to New Zealand early next year.

``If they can't come up to the required standards of fitness and motivation, they should decide themselves what they want to do, warned Zia.

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