Geoff Lawson, the coach of the Pakistan cricket team, is in the focus for wrong reasons after creating a scene in the post match press conference yesterday. The ex Aussie test player apparently got angry with the media personnel who were ready to pounce on him following consecutive losses suffered at the hands of India and Sri Lanka.
While Geoff Lawson may have been a very good fast bowler for Australian test team years ago, I doubt whether he was the right pick to coach Pakistan. The following are the reasons why he would not last long in the sub-continent.
1. In the past one year there was not any signs of exceptional performance from the Pakistan team except for reaching the Twenty-20 worldcup final. Pakistan lost both the test series they played against S.Africa at home and India in India. They had a winning streak of 12 ODIs in a row but 11 of them were against minnows Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
2. Other sub-continent coaches like Bob Woolmer, Tom Moody, Dave Whatmore and Greg Chappel were emotionally matured to handle the press, tough math situations and the fanatic fans. Geoff is not tough enough as he was always found either too excited or disappointed in the dressing room during tight matches.
3. Geoff had the worst timing to take over as coach, after Pakistan lost their main batsman (Inzamam) in the form of retirement, got a not-so-natural leader as the new captain and lost edge as their fast bowlers are either not the best around or not available to play due to various scandals. In addition, the selection policy and roles have always been an issue (Wonder why Shoaib Malik should captain the side while somebody like Younis Khan is there in the team)
4. At the moment, what Pakistan needs is probably a homegrown coach who can deal with the local sentiments better and will be under less pressure compared to a foreign coach. We don’t want anybody to have the same fate as Bob, right?
5. Geoff is in the same situation as Greg was in 2006. Some straight wins initially was to be followed by controversies along with governance issues with the respective cricket bodies. At the end it is the (foreign) coach who becomes the scapegoat. Everybody else will be always right!
According to me the best coach for Pakistan (and even for India) would have been somebody like Tom Moody who was so good and matured in handling the fans and press as he was with players. Is he still available?