Pakistan146;s Great Leap Forward

Bishan Bedi once suggested, when he was appointed coach, that if nine months was enough to start a family it was enough for a coach to show results. In Pakistan, I suspect, they would be horrified if a coach asked for nine months, that would be far too much constancy in the whirlwind they have embraced. And so, like those other coaches that periodically pull up at airport terminals, these too come and go with equal frequency. Not surprisingly, Pak cricket is paying the price for it.

It is in such an atmosphere that Bob Woolmer comes in, handpicked by a very dignified chairman but one who occupies a position that is itself subject to the whims of the national ruler. His will probably be the most high profile English arrival since Jemima Khan. In an atmosphere of some turbulence she lasted nine years. If Woolmer lasts that long, he will have done very well. I suspect Pakistan would have too.

But Woolmer must enjoy living in Pakistan, he must find himself gasping at the outrageous talent that exists there, he must find a way of bringing order to the chaos that exists. The last time he brought a team to the sub-continent, Woolmer hated it. His diary of the 1996-97 tour of India with the South African team that he moulded so beautifully, was full of complaints about the system, he could have been another English tourist. But Woolmer is innovative and even more that that, he is organised and in our part of the world that is a great quality to possess. Sometimes we seem to assign a certain arrogance to our chaos, we seek to justify it because we do not know how to drive it away. But talent need not thrive in chaos, it might sometimes but it need not necessarily.

In that sense it is similar to television where great spontaneity often comes out of great preparation. And India has shown that if chaos can be reduced, talent can flower. For that to happen, Pakistan must be open-minded with Woolmer. It is not a word that has often been associated with coaches there.

Woolmer8217;s appointment also means that the cricket world is now completely polarised towards a western work ethic. The game is getting systems driven, the power of being organised and forward looking is being felt everywhere. Every cricket-playing country now has a coach with an Anglo-Saxon work ethic and much like industry, there seem to be fewer barriers towards importing talent. England have a Zimbabwean coach and Zimbabwe have an Australian. So do Sri Lanka and Bangladesh while we in India have looked towards New Zealand. Even the West Indies seemed keen to import an Australian until he preferred to stay with his country8217;s academy.

The easiest conclusion to jump to would be that countries would lose their natural style of playing, that they would all go into a melting point and look increasingly like each other. The good news is that that will not happen. What will happen is that teams will take the field with similar fitness levels, a similar attitude towards playing, they will be equally well prepared but they will continue to play differently. Laxman, Dravid and Sehwag are better batsmen then they were three years ago, they are stronger and clearer in their mind, but they still adopt the same style.

Some day, like our modern industrialists and students, our coaches will want to take the trouble of becoming world class. Till that time we will be forced to import coaches. Pakistan have realised that now. It will be interesting to see if this intent can beat the challenge of tradition; to see if Kahani coach coach ki will have another twist to it.