Between 1967 and 1978-9, Saleem Altaf played in 21 Tests for Pakistan as a bustling medium-fast bowler
17-Mar-2005
Even if you had to, who can you replace Inzamam with, asks Saleem Altaf?© Getty Images
When and how did you find out that you had become director of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)?
This had been going on for a while. Once Rameez Raja had decided to resign from his post [as CEO last year in July], there were quite a few candidates, including me, in the running for the position. Eventually I believe the names were recommended by the chairman of the PCB to its patron, President Pervez Musharraf. I came to know about it on 28 January. I was on my way to get some domestic chores done and I got a call from the chairman, who said he wanted to see me. So I met him and he told me my name had been approved and welcome on board. Since I started I haven’t really had the time to think about the job. Then came the second part and I was never a candidate either, for the post of manager for this tour. This was also a very late decision. The chairman told me `you are on board and you have to go’ and that was that. It’s not an easy job. There are too many other things to worry about. The media especially are so hungry, especially in India, and everyone is looking for a story. Sometimes there is no story yet something still has to be done. So what you do is, you have to be careful, what you say is not always reported. Apart from all that, so far, so good.Do you have a brief for your role of director?
Look, I have a team with me of two general managers and we have sat down and done some work. There are two prinicipal areas we are looking at. Everyone keeps talking about domestic cricket and the second area is that the board has spent a lot of money on the national academy and that is not producing the kind of results that are needed. These are two critical areas that need to be looked at. I spent a lot of time with Intikhab Alam and we discussed the domestic structure here [in India] which he thinks is pretty good. There are some thoughts that came out of that – one is that we go back and say that change for the sake of change is not what we are looking at. What we are saying is, is it necessary to change the present setup? Mind you, the present setup of regional cricket and institutional cricket has been brought in after some thought. But if there are flaws in it, then we would like to look at it.What are your own thoughts about moving the emphasis away from institutional cricket to regional cricket?
Look, I have played and been involved with institutional cricket for most of my life and played with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for ten years or so. I think institutional cricket should stay and be strengthened. I personally believe that knocking away institutional cricket is not good. You see, one, institutions provide an income for cricketers. Two, they employ the big-name cricketers and thus their sides are generally pretty strong, especially when compared to regional teams. There are a lot of thought processes going on at the moment but if you ask me, I am for institutional cricket. I would like to talk to banks and airlines who employ these players and see if we can recreate the old days when Habib Bank and National Bank were very strong sides. That is something that has drifted away and we need to look at it. How? I don’t know at this stage.But the chairman and Rameez have always been keen to sideline institutions…
It’s just a question of how you think about it. Some people thought that a Karachi-Lahore or a Punjab-Sindh game would be great cricket and bring in great crowds. I don’t think that is going to happen. So somewhere in between is a solution. We don’t know where yet, but it is there somewhere. What we have definitely done is improve the quality of the pitches. You must understand I have been away for six years. I only got back to Pakistan last March. The general consensus when I got back was that wickets over the last two-three years have been seaming wickets with grass on them. The result was that you were not producing quality players – all the bowler had to do was to pitch the ball on a spot and he would pick up wickets. Immediately, what we have done is to give instructions to all centres where first-class cricket is played and said, “shave off the grass.” What we are looking at is hard cricket, where the bowler has to earn his wicket and not just pick them up thanks to the pitches. I think if you look at the results in the last few matches that I saw, runs were being scored and it means that bowlers have to learn to earn their wickets.
Saleem Altaf says that cricketers like Zaheer Abbas have come from the same system that has struggled to produce Test cricketers© Getty Images
Do you feel domestic cricket has failed Pakistan cricket in that it isn’t providing a good nursery for international players? The gap between first-class cricket in Pakistan and international cricket is becoming bigger and so many youngsters have struggled when they have come on to the international scene…
At this stage, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is wrong. Past cricketers who moved to the international stage and performed well for Pakistan also came from this structure or standard. What we need to do is to find out why we aren’t producing quality Test cricketers at the moment. Let me ask you, where did Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad come from after all? It isn’t going to be easy to see what has gone wrong but it has to be done. One way would be to talk to players and ex-players and get their feedback on where they think domestic cricket has gone wrong and take it from there. By June of this year, the entire first-class fixture list will be prepared and sent out to the associations and institutions. There are nine regions, and all have coaches and referees so you need to look at whether they are qualified. All this information has to be collected and then we have to slowly and steadily bring about a change in the system. It has to be done, there are no compromises on that.What do you make of the team, having been with them for a short amount of time?
You’ve got to see that we lost two or three key players in a very short amount of time soon after the 2003 World Cup. You lost your two quicks, Wasim and Waqar, as well as a quality opener in Saeed Anwar. Plus, on this tour we do not have Shoaib Akhtar or Shabbir Ahmed, who are both injured. We don’t have Umar Gul either, who is injured. On the next tier of fit bowlers we have Mohammad Sami but he is only one. Along with him are Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan and Mohammad Khalil, who are both inexperienced. The entire bowling is dependent on Sami and Kaneria – two bowlers on subcontinent pitches is never enough.What are your first impressions of Inzamam as a captain?
If the team does well, everything is hunky-dory. If there is a dip then the first person who gets the blame is the captain. The problem is, if, for instance, there is a decision that we need to change the captain, what choices are available to you? You don’t just change a captain if his side is losing. Alright, so you say let’s change Inzamam – who do you replace him with? At the moment, he is the senior figure and the best batsman in the side so you carry on with him. You give even the best captain a relatively weak side and it won’t be easy.But does he have to be the best player or even the senior-most to be captain?
Again, at the moment, there is no option. Yousuf Youhana is one, Younis Khan is the other, what else? Someone as young as Salman Butt? You can’t do that because it takes time and experience to groom a captain. For the moment, Inzi looks the best available choice.How do you handle someone like Shoaib Akhtar?
I have already spoken to him. One of the skills I learned from my corporate experience in PIA as a senior official is man-management. If you overbook a flight, you will have a few irate passengers. You learn to keep people calm and deal with them. He is mercurial, he has a lot of media hype around him, everywhere he goes people run around after him. I think we can handle him, he’s not a problem.How do you think Bob Woolmer has done as coach of the side so far?
I have only watched him for ten days. But the point is, two things have happened. One, the fitness routine and overall fitness with the trainer has definitely improved. The work ethic has also improved. From that perspective, yes, fitness is good, there seems to be more focus in the team. Younger players take a little longer to learn but so far so good. I can’t really talk about the technical side of the improvements he is trying to bring in because I haven’t seen him for that long.
Saleem believes that under Bob Woolmer, the team’s work ethic has improved© Getty Images
What is the latest with Shoaib Malik regarding his bowling action?
To be frank, the submission we have given on him has not been accepted. There are two options now available. One is to risk bowling him and face the subsequent penalty, which could be harsh. The other option is that right now, most of these guys are going to see Bruce Elliot in Australia for remedial work. The ICC has a couple of other experts on the panel. Our thinking is that we might like to go through another one but that can only happen after the India series. Basically, he has a disability with his elbow which was the result of a road accident. We need to have a second opinion on it but, personally, I think we shouldn’t bowl him but that he [should] play purely as a batsman. Technically and mentally he is very good. Let me put it this way: he looks like good captaincy material as well. There is a Pakistan A side going to Zimbabwe and Namibia after the India tour and we would like to get him to captain the side and maybe start grooming him.Pakistan played only seven Tests but 29 ODIs last year. Are there plans to redress that balance in the next year or two?
England are coming to play four Tests later this year in November-December and three ODIs. I have seen the itinerary and that has been agreed. Then India come back in January-February for three Tests, I think, and five ODIs and then we are off to England to play a further four Tests. So there are eleven Tests lined up over the next year, so there is heavy Test cricket ahead of us. We are also touring West Indies in May-June this year for a couple of Tests. So there are quite a few matches in the next 15 months or so.How important is this tour for Pakistan?
Before we came in, everyone said we had a relatively weaker side. But the boys will learn from this tour, there will be some positives. If you’re playing against superior players and you have a little bit of a mind, you will improve. If we can acquit ourselves creditably and go down fighting, if we go down, some of the younger players might mature and come out to serve Pakistan in the future.