Pakistan pick Lawson as new coach

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Pakistan pick Lawson as new coach

Pakistan have confirmed former Australia fast bowler Geoff Lawson as their new national team coach.
He succeeds Bob Woolmer, who died at the World Cup earlier this year after collapsing in his Jamaica hotel room.

"Lawson is our choice and we are confident he will help the Pakistan team into a new era of success," said board chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf.

The 49-year-old, who took 180 wickets in 46 Test appearances in the 1980s, has agreed a two-year contract.


Interview: Geoff Lawson
Earlier, however, he told Australian TV and radio he would not have taken the job if there had been any doubts remaining about Woolmer's death.

The case was initially treated as murder but pathologists later contradicted the findings and confirmed he had died from natural causes.

"That put my mind at rest," said Lawson.

The Pakistan team has had eight different coaches in the past 11 years and struggled to achieve consistency in both Test and one-day cricket.


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And Lawson's appointment ahead of rival candidate Dav Whatmore, the former Sri Lanka and Bangladesh coach, represents something of a gamble by the PCB as his only experience came with state side New South Wales.

Explaining their decision, Dr Ashraf said: "We wanted a bright, young, qualified coach, well aware of the modern day requirements."

Lawson believes Pakistan has a highly talented squad, who just need to achieve the right mental approach to improve results in all forms of the game.

"It's not a great exercise in skill development, it's an exercise in mental development," he told Sydney radio station 2KY.

"Australia never look on any game they run out on the paddock for as meaningless. That is a terrific attitude to have. Every day is 100% and that's certainly not what a lot of sides do.

"If you've got the talent and you're well prepared and you take every game as if it's a grand final, there's a chance you are going to do well.

"Pakistan's inconsistency has probably got a lot to do with that - not approaching every game, or the next game, as the most important one they're going to play.

"I think that is the greatest challenge," he said.

Lawson is expected to arrive in Pakistan next month to begin preparations for the Twenty20 World Cup in September and series against South Africa and India which follow.

His first task will be to appoint support staff to work alongside him.

Meanwhile, former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has not been included in a list of 20 players awarded central contracts by the board.

Despite retiring from one-day cricket following the World Cup, he was still hoping to continue his Test career.

"We have given those players contracts and retainers who are available for both forms of the game," said director of cricket operations Zakir Khan.

But he added: "If Inzamam is fit he will be considered."


Contract players: Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Abdul Razzaq, Salman Butt, Mohammad Sami, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Danish Kaneria, Kamran Akmal, Imran Nazir, Rao Iftikhar, Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Yasir Arafat.

Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/cricket/other_international/pakistan/6899552.stm

Published: 2007/07/16 15:10:03 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

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Legends attack Lawson appointment
Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad slammed the appointment of Australian Geoff Lawson as the team's new coach.
Miandad, who played 124 Tests and had three spells as coach up to 2004, said: "How can you expect a foreigner to have the patriotism a Pakistani does?

"Instead of bringing in foreigners the Pakistan board should first try to improve the grass-root cricket level.

"If foreign coaches can guarantee a certain level of performance, fine. Otherwise it is a waste of money."

Lawson beat fellow Australian Dav Whatmore, the former Bangladesh and Sri Lanka coach, to the job.

"Even if you want to hire a foreigner, then why not do it on merit? If merit is the benchmark then Whatmore knows subcontinental teams better than Lawson," said Miandad.

He added that former Pakistan players such as Intikhab, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis would have been better choices.

Another former Pakistan captain Intikhab Alam, who held a managerial role when Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992, also questioned the appointment of another foreign coach to succeed the late Bob Woolmer.


I worked as manager with Woolmer and I can say our own players are equally good
Zaheer Abbas

"I have nothing against Lawson but he should be prepared for a lot of criticism and a hard time," he said.

"The board should first try to find out if we really need a foreign coach and then take a decision."

Legendary batsman Zaheer Abbas, who scored more than 5,000 Test runs and who worked with the team in an administrative role during Woolmer's reign, was angered when news of the appointment was made by Lawson in the Australian media before the result of a Pakistan board meeting to discuss the issue was announced.

"What was the purpose of having the meeting if the board had already taken a decision?" he said

Zaheer also suggested a member of the Pakistan squad, either recent or current, should have been chosen as the new man at the helm.

"I worked as manager with Woolmer and I can say our own players are equally good," he insisted.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Nasim Ashraf was forced to deny that player power led to Lawson's appointment over the more experienced Dav Whatmore.

"We took the players' opinion but it's wrong to say that the decision was made on that, we considered all points," he said.



Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/cricket/other_international/pakistan/6901673.stm

Published: 2007/07/16 17:44:16 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

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Lawson faces steep learning curve
By Oliver Brett



I don't suffer fools and I don't put up with second best
Geoff Lawson

Geoff Lawson's elevation to the role of Pakistan's national team coach, where he succeeds the late Bob Woolmer, gives the man from Wagga Wagga his biggest role in cricket to date.

His 46 Tests, where he occasionally shone as a talented outswing bowler, were shoe-horned into the 1980s.

He took 180 wickets at a decent average of 30.56 and helped Australia regain the Ashes in 1989, but two years earlier missed out on selection for the World Cup as Allan Border's side lifted the trophy.

Lawson's experiences in international cricket stood him in good stead for when he captained New South Wales in 1988 to 1992, where he won both domestic trophies.

It has been said that his brand of aggressive, positive captaincy influenced the leadership skills of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, young team-mates at NSW who went on to become two of Australia's finest captains.

And after confirming his acceptance of Pakistan's offer, he reminded reporters that his affable exterior conceals a steely core.


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"I don't suffer fools and I don't put up with second best," he said.

In his 15 years since retirement, Lawson, now 49, has had only limited experience of coaching.

What he has done in that time is a lot of media work, for radio and newspapers, and he has established a reputation as an astute observer.

Some nine months before the last Ashes series started, he told BBC Sport Stuart Clark would be a top performer.

Many pundits did not even have Clark starting the series, but he ended it as the top wicket-taker.

The safe option for Pakistan would have been to install Dav Whatmore as their new coach.

Whatmore unexpectedly won a World Cup for Sri Lanka in 1996 and turned Bangladesh from no-hopers into an almost decent team in one-day cricket.


But instead eyes will be fixed on Lawson, who is also a qualified optometrist.

"It is a big job and opportunities like this come along very seldom," he told the BBC.

"I have met a number of [Pakistan's players] being a commentator and travelling around, and have had a number of conversations with them.

"They then welcomed me very warmly in Ahmedabad at their training camp.

"A relationship was established there very quickly and I was rather pleased by that.

"They are a fantastically skilful squad of players. That's the kind of thing I love to see and to be offered the job is a real bonus."

The great Pakistan cliché is that they are a mercurial team, yo-yoing between brilliant successes and calamitous defeats.

Lawson knows he needs to get his players "mentally up" for every day they play cricket - no easy task given the unprecedented demands on their time.


"Their first engagement will be the Twenty20 World Cup in mid-September and within a week of the final they're in a Test match with India.

"That will be a challenge preparing for Test cricket on the back of Twenty20 cricket. We've got a lot of work to do."

Under former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan were sometimes criticised for being overly religious.

But Lawson is unconcerned, saying: "There's a bit of a myth, I think, about the culture.

"Most of the players are just standard blokes. Most play county cricket.

"There are going to be some cultural challenges but I don't think it's quite as major as a few people like to make out."

He is also well aware of Woolmer's avuncular status within the previous Pakistan set-up: "Bob was very popular with the Pakistan players.

"He set a very good foundation and the players have a very high regard for what Bob did."

If Lawson can achieve the same rapport with the team that Woolmer - another outsider - managed, then half his job will be done.


Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/cricket/other_international/pakistan/6900565.stm

Published: 2007/07/16 12:48:56 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

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