"He is doing a blunder" - Saqlain Mushtaq's strong take on Shaheen Afridi's fight with Mohammad Yousuf

The former Pakistan cricket team coach Saqlain Mushtaq reacted to the reports of the fight between Mohammad Yousuf and Shaheen Afridi. He said that it's very unfortunate that things like these are coming and the management should have the solution for all the things.

Pakistan National Cricket Team have been marred with a lot of controversies of late. Their performances, too, haven't been up to the mark as they have had some of the worst outings in international cricket and have faced a lot of criticism as well for the poor show.

Apart from this, there also have been various reports about the indiscipline in the team during the T20 World Cup 2024. It was learned that Shaheen Afridi was the main culprit behind as head coach Gary Kirsten also complained about him to the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Gary Kirsten accused Shaheen Afridi of misbehaving in the team and also disturbing the atmosphere of the team. After that, even the Chairman of the board stated that they wouldn't tolerate any indiscipline in the team.

There also were reports which suggested that when Pakistan batting coach Shaheen Afridi had heated arguments with batting coach Mohammad Yousuf during Pakistan's T20I tour of England. This was because the coach pointed out the fast bowler's no balls, and the pacer told him to mind his own business.

While talking about the same, Saqlain Mushtaq said that management and coaches and it's their responsibility how they will tackle these situations and uniquely talk to players. He also highlighted that even if the domain of coach isn't strong, he should portray himself in a way that he knows everything. Speaking on the Cricket Pakistan YouTube channel, he explained:

"I will say with great regret that, I don't know how these things came out. Look, is this a failure of coaches or management? Management or coaches should have solutions for everything. If suppose, no one is listening to anyone, no one is agreeing. How will you talk? Find an opportunity. Find a way. Find time. How will you talk? Get it realized. After that, say that this is how it is. If you say, no, no, not like this. Will you fight? Will you fight at that time? If you go to this level, your management skills should be very good.

"Even if you don't have a domain, and you are going, and when you ask questions with him or start a conversation, then the next person should know that he has a lot of knowledge of this field too. I can't believe that a cricketer who has played cricket has played enough cricket; if he is a bowler, then he knows how to bat. Look, the coin, there are two parts of it. The head and the tail. If he is a batsman, then he is looking at the batting side. If he is a bowler, then he is looking at the bowling side."

Saqlain Mushtaq further highlighted how the relationship between players and coaches works, stressing when he was the coach of the teams, batters used to ask him for tips. He elaborated:

"If the bowler is not looking at the batsman, how he is playing the shots, and what are his tactics, how he makes these runs, where are his flaws, and how will I catch him, how will he catch me, then it means that he is not a bowler. And if a batsman does not know about the bowler, then he is not a batsman. I was with England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, and the West Indies, and I have even worked with Pakistan.

"Batsmen used to come to me and talk a lot. They used to talk a lot about Australia. That he is bowling, where will I make runs? And which shot will be hit? And how do you look at the batsman while bowling? This is a cycle that the bowler completes and the batsman also completes. What are your intentions? What do you want to do against the bowler? How do you play? Intention. Then you play or bowl him in your imagination.

"You bowl him in your imagination that he is playing me like this, I will bowl him here, in your imagination, I will bowl like this, he will pitch here, this ball will be like this, or I will get him out on the short leg, or I will out get him out in the slip, or he will step on the front foot, or I will create a dot like this, So, intention, imagination, then execution. Then you do that."

Trust is the key, coaches having trust in the players is very important - Saqlain Mushtaq

Saqlain Mushtaq further stated how batters and bowlers prepare, pointing out that all the coaches work together to make a player better. He stressed that the relationship between players and coaches is like soul and body.

While talking about a heated argument between Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Yousuf, he said that trust is the key, and if the pacer did that, he made a blunder as he didn't want to learn. He added:

"So, you bowl him in your imagination. And when you are executing, it is a replay for you. And for the player or the spectator, that is the actual bowling. The bowler has already bowled in his imagination. So, this is a replay. And after the replay, he sees what the batsman played, what I did, what my intentions were, what my imaginations were, what my execution was.

"After that, he goes into observation. He sees what he did, what I did, what I should have done, how I should have trapped him. He again calculates the observation, makes the intention, imagination, and execution, and goes into observation. Similarly, the batsman also does it. What is the bowler doing? How does he swing? How will I play him? Where will he give me the runs? What field setting has he done?

"So, you have to work together; all coaches work together, batting coaches go to bowling coach to discuss plans. Players also work together. Mohammad Rizwan used to come to me to ask about plans on playing sweep shots. Trust is the key; coaches having trust in the players is very important. It's a relationship like soul and body. All these things that are coming up, when the coach or bowler hears this, they will feel very bad. But if the bowler is saying this, he is doing a blunder because he doesn't want to learn and If a coach does these types of things that he is stupid," he concluded.