While Pakistan cricket team is scheduled to undertake tour of England in July this year, there are hopes with the newly appointed head coach Mickey Arthur and this tour would be his first test. The former cricketers have expressed the hope that Mickey Arthur would help improve ranking of Team Pakistan in all formats of the game. They said Mickey is a true professional and is expected to show better results.
Arthur has taken on England many times in his former roles, most recently at the 2013 Champions Trophy- shortly before his sacking in the weeks approaching that summer's Ashes. The Pakistan Cricket Board has named Mickey Arthur in place of Waqar Younis and it is expected that Mickey Arthur will join the PCB by the end of this month. Former skipper of Pakistan cricket team Wasim Akram said that forthcoming tour of England would not be easy for Pakistan team. "Neither the English wickets are flat nor it would be easy to bat," he said. Wasim also emphasized to improve the structure of domestic cricket to produce real talent. He expressed concern over current ranking of Team Pakistan.
Former cricketer Bazid Khan believes newly appointed Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur is a brave man as he accepted a turbulent job. Mickey is a brave man to accept this turbulent job," said Bazid, adding: "It is not a very desirable job right now to be the head coach of Pakistan cricket team."
When asked if the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) assured quality while selecting the new head coach, Bazid said the board was more interested in a different question. "The actual discussion was about whether to hire a foreign or a local coach; there wasn't much debate about how high profile the coach should be," he said.
Bazid said, "Most people feel that a foreign coach doesn't bring much to the Pakistani team because of the dynamics, the structure or the lack of structure or the situation of the players coming through the ranks. Only Bob Woolmer to some extent was able to manage that," he explained. He said that Mickey will have to dig deep into the domestic structure to unearth the secrets to building a successful Pakistan team. He also suggested Mickey to set discipline and fitness standards to change the fortunes of Pakistan's limited-overs cricket.