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Mickey Arthur announced as Pakistan’s head coach. (Source: AP)
The suspense over who would be the next Pakistan coach was over on Friday after the PCB named the South African Mickey Arthur for the top job. Arthur, who has previously coached South Africa and Australia, succeeds Waqar Younis, who had resigned owing to the side’s disastrous World T20 campaign.
“Following detailed consultations…discussions with Mickey Arthur were initiated and he has confirmed his acceptance of the post of Head Coach of the Pakistan National Cricket team,” the PCB said in a statement. “The modalities vis-a-vis his contract are being finalised. It is expected that Mickey Arthur will be able to join the PCB toward the end of this month,” it added.
The post was initially offered to Stuart Law, who turned it down citing his inability to immediately join the team. Englishman Peter Moores had also rejected PCB’s offer.
Achievements
The 47-year old Mickey Arthur played 110 first-class games in South Africa before coaching international teams like South Africa and Australia. He was the helm when South Africa registered their first series win in England in 2008 after 40 years, their first series win in Australia later in 2008-09, and also led them to a No 1 ranking in Tests and ODIs. During his stint as coach, South Africa won 13 consecutive ODIs, equalling Australia’s world record. He took over as Australia coach in November 2011, and they won 10 out of 19 games, before he was sacked in 2013.
Trouble in Africa
Controversies followed him in both his high-profile coaching tenures. He took over South Africa role in 2005 and had a good five-year run before problems started to surface. In 2009, they won just one of the six Tests, and drew a series against England. A report in the South African newspaper Witness said the relationship between Arthur and Smith had “deteriorated irreparably”. “This is not about Graeme. I have absolutely no issues with Graeme.” He put it down to differences with the cricket board of South Africa. “My vision of how to go forward with the team was clear but the board’s was different. I’ve always run a tight management and team, but CSA board of directors want structural changes.” It was then speculated that he had fallen out with the board over the quota policies.
Crisis Down Under
It all began during a disastrous tour of India where Australia were drubbed 0-4, leading to the infamous homework gate. Four players – Shane Watson, Michael Johnson, Usman Khawaja, James Pattinson — were dropped for not completing a homework activity. Watson, who was the vice captain on that tour, left the tour along with the three others, leading to major controversy. Later, in his tour report, which was leaked, Arthur was supposed to have revealed that Clarke told him Watson and his group were a cancer within the side. The report also mentioned that it was Watson who was the player who tipped off Arthur about David Warner’s nightclub fight with England player Joe Root.
Not long after that, Arthur was sacked as a coach, 13 days before the start of the Ashes. There was a great fallout from the fracas – former players voiced their displeasure with the way Arthur ran the team like a headmaster, Clarke was upset that Arthur talked about ‘cancer’ remark in his report, Arthur was angry that his report was leaked. Arthur even sued Cricket Australia, claiming 2.44 million pounds, and one of the several grounds for his complaint even alleged racial discrimination. The two parties, finally, settled out of court.
Arthur on homework gate
“I felt that the team at that time needed direction, it needed structure and my style of coaching is one like that. I like structure, I like direction, I want everybody buying into exactly a common goal, I want everybody buying into the sort of environment that we want to create. So, look, I don’t make any apologies for that. Sometimes maybe I misread the temperature, but at the end of the day, that is my style and it’s been a successful style sort of most of the places I’ve been to,” he said in an interview to ABC in 2014.
What did he do after Australia?
Arthur coached many T20 franchise sides across the world – Dhaka Dynamites in Bangladesh Premier League, Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League, and Karachi Kings in Pakistan Super League in 2016.
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