Mickey Arthur is all set to take over as Pakistan’s head coach, and his stint begins with the team’s challenging tour of England. Arthur, who has previously coached South Africa and Australia will have a massive challenge ahead of him as the current outfit of Pakistan seems quite jaded. Pakistan hasn’t played a test outside Asia since early 2013 and last toured England in 2010.
Arthur interacted with the press in Lahore and spoke on a variety of issues. He stated that coaching any subcontinent team would be a massive challenge as people in the subcontinent are fanatics behind cricket. The South African also said that coaching Pakistan was a great opportunity for him.
“It has massive attraction,” Arthur said. “You just got to look at the passion that the Pakistan public have for cricket. The passion that everybody in the subcontinent has for cricket. For me, I wanted to come and coach in the subcontinent at some stage of my coaching career because if you haven’t coached in the subcontinent, you haven’t really coached.
“That was a massive attraction, coupled with the fact that we need to improve the rankings in ODI cricket without a doubt, we need to improve the rankings in Twenty20 cricket. We need to become a little bit more consistent. Our Test cricket seems to be very good at the moment. Test cricket is being played in conditions conducive to the subcontinent. If we can play well outside the subcontinent means the team’s really going forward and those are all the challenges I’m really looking forward to,” Arthur added.
Arthur added that for the team to succeed, the individuals must first back their own abilities. “The strategy is to make them believe in their own abilities, make them believe where we are going to take this team and that belief comes over time, it just doesn’t start. I love to see the players dig deep inside and find the extra 10% that’s going to make a significant difference to this team going forward and that’s what I will try to dwell and try to get out of every player. To make sure that they become better, and if they become better players Pakistan cricket will benefit. That is my primary focus at the moment.”