Abdul Razzaq speaks out: Lawson was only a dummy coach

Category: Sports
Written by: Ammar Faheem (on November 01, 2008 - 11:15 PM)

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Former Pakistan cricketer Abdul Razzaq's anguish of being dropped from the national squad for the inaugural ICC Twenty-20 World Cup, held at South Africa last year, is yet to simmer down. The dashing all-rounder announced retirement soon after and joined Indian Cricket League's Hyderabad Heroes squad.

His frustration became apparent when he termed the decision of sacking Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson as a ‘good decision’ and then went on to say both Lawson and skipper Shoaib Malik were ‘yes men’ of the previous Pakistan Cricket Board.

"Lawson was basically a ‘dummy coach’ of PCB. The main problem was all members of PCB wanted a 'yes man' and showed little respect to the players. Their basic aim was to kill player power. And in Lawson and Malik, they found the right combination," said Razzaq, following a gruelling training session on the eve of their ICL 20-20 clash against Delhi Giants to be played at Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula.

However, Razzaq expressed hope that with Ejaz Butt being appointed the new PCB chairman, things might change for the better. But at the same time, he sounded cautious about the future of Pakistan cricket. "PCB is a government body, whom you can’t challenge. The problem is those controlling cricket in our country don’t care about the players or think of chalking out plans that would revive the glorious years of Pakistan cricket," Razzaq said.

He also said that appointing Intikhab Alam as the new coach is unlikely to help lifting the falling standard of the game in Pakistan. "With all respect to Alam sir, I still feel that he is not the right choice. He’s 66 now and will find it difficult to communicate and build proper rapport with the players, which is crucial when it comes to coaching. An ideal coach should be below 50, as coaching is a taxing job, both physically and mentally," he added.

Commenting on chances of the ban being lifted on ICL players, Razzaq, who earlier in the year expressed confidence that it would be lifted in due course of time, sounded pessimistic on Thursday.

"The way things are moving at present, the chances of taking back ICL players into mainstream cricket look bleak. I feel the Indian cricket board has a big role to play on lifting the ban," he said.

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