da betobet： Mohammad Yousuf believes hiring a specialist fielding coach for Pakistanwill not make much of a difference to the side’s continued problems in thearea
da fazobetai： Osman Samiuddin at the SCG02-Jan-2010Mohammad Yousuf believes hiring a specialist fielding coach for Pakistanwill not make much of a difference to the side’s continued problems in thearea. Pakistan dropped five catches in all in their 170-run loss toAustralia at the MCG. That came on the back of the Test series in New Zealand wherethey grassed at least ten chances through the three Tests, including sixin the win in Wellington.The performance has prompted speculation in Pakistan that hiring aspecialist fielding coach is on the cards. Waqar Younis, the former fastbowler, is already with the squad as a bowling and fielding coach, but hehas only been appointed for the Australia series. In any case the brunt ofhis work lies in the fast bowling department.Pakistan have toyed with the idea in the past, occasionally hiring peoplefor the post, but no one has been retained long-term. Jonty Rhodes camein for a brief stint in 2006, just before Pakistan toured England, andYousuf believes the experience points to the futility of such a post. “Wecannot do more than what we do already about it,” he told Cricinfo.”What else can we do other than practice catching all the time. Even ifyou hire a fielding coach, remember Jonty Rhodes before the 2006 Englandseries? We dropped 20 catches in that series. Whoever comes will do thesame kind of practices and throw lots of catches and all that is happeningnow anyway.”The problem, believes Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam, is more deep-rootedand will probably require a systemic change at the domestic level. “Wemust accept that there were lapses in the fielding at Melbourne anddropping the openers was crucial,” Intikhab told Cricinfo.”We do a lot of fielding practice with all the coaches. I’m not going tomake any excuses about the conditions, the crowds and how we might not beused to it. There are some youngsters there, some new guys.”The department is such that if you work hard at it you can reallyimprove. We have hours of practice where we practice slip catches, highballs, flat ones, diving ones, running ones. We cover everything but I’vebeen saying for a long time, it is a grassroots problem. For departmentsand associations in domestic cricket, players don’t really do muchfielding practice. When they come into the international side, that iswhen they start learning properly and that is not easy.”
