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The mark of the man

Less than a month in office as Pakistan coach, and Javed Miandad is already the subject of many stories.

Gentle fun is poked at some of his methods, a certain ridicule is aimed at his methodology, and the team members can't seem to make up their minds whether this universally respected cricketer is also the most hilarious.

"Apni apni bali (which is how he pronounces 'bari' lo na," says Javed to team members when he invites them for batting stints at nets.

Javed has a high-pitched, nasal voice delivery and even if he seems serious, he can't help being Johnny-Walkerish in sound and mannerism.

Even more hilarous is when he discusses , sitting in the dressing room and instructing the boys who are out in the middle. "Keep looking at me. When I clap with my right hand, you move to your left and when I clap with my left hand you move to the right," is the advice this correspondent overheard, shortly before the third game.

His involvement and commitment has produced results, but his more bizarre methods have already got a few backs up, not least that of team captain Aamir Sohail. There was one particular instance of Miandad wanting a certain field when Sohail bowled, and the latter disagreeing. The incident involved Navjot Singh Sidhu. Knowing Sidhu's penchant for the cut and for slashed strokes on the offside, Miandad wanted the gully-point area well manned. "It is not enough that you pitch up on the stumps and on one side of the wicket. You also need to cover the shot-areas of the batsman," he said.

Sohail agrees, but apparently the preachy style of his coach irritates him. Sohail, by nature, hates to be reined in. And remember, it was Sohail who, after Pakistan's disastrous showing in the 1996 World Cup, went on record to say that it was a good thing Miandad was finally out of the team. It was, too, Sohail (captaining the side in the absence of Wasim Akram) who posted Miandad at third man or fine leg positions during the Indian innings at Bangalore during the quarterfinal -- the obvious intention being to banish the senior player from the middle, and prevent him from trying to dictate strategy.

Ask Sohail, and he shrugs and dismisses the entire subject.

I then bring up the subject with Colonel Rafi Nasim, media officer of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and he says, have no doubts about Miandad. "I tell you, he is the greatest," says Nasim. "The best. Both as a tactician and also as a disciplinarian. Just wait till he gets comfortable in the chair. He will really get cracking."

That Miandad is in a hurry to let everyone know who is boss was evident when he called two Hifaze Quran (the protectors of the Quran, the ones who remember the entire holy book by heart) and asked them to give sermons to the Pakistan team. The two men arrived, and a pep talk was duly given.

Be that as it may, Miandad is too rivetting a subject to escape attention for long. On the morning of the third game, I walked up to him. "Remember what I told you in Lahore last year, this is not a game for thoroughbreds. This is a tamasha, a festival, this is not cricket," he says.

You mean this Sahara Cup? The celebrated India-Pakistan clash? "This India-Pakistan thing is all right. But this is not cricket. The real cricket is different. It is where you distribute fielders in equal measure on either side of the wicket, a 4-5 combination, and then the bowler experiments with his line and imagination, draws a batsman into entering into a realm which is uncharted and thus dangerous. It is where the creativity comes in. What creativity is there in such one-day settings?" he demands.

And goes on to elaborate, obviously riding a favourite hobbyhorse. "I mean you have bowlers here bowling to a 6-3 field on slow wickets, keeping it on the corridor of off-stump or thereabout and trying to snuff out a batsman's creativity, with a sweeper in the deep as cover for bad bowling. Where is the batsmanship, where is the elegance? This is not a battle for creativity, merely one of defensive exhaustion. I don't see any fun in it."

A session with Miandad can be worth a 1,000 page treatise on cricket. In my time, I have covered dozens of one dayers, but to watch one through the eyes of the master is an education. I recall Zaheer Abbas telling me about this man in Karachi, when India had gone visiting Pakistan last year: "I may have my differences with this man (Miandad) but I tell you he was great," enthused Zaheer. "He was selfish alright, but you know what was his biggest kick? He wanted to make sure his partner didn't make more runs than him!"

Miandad has finally got into the hot seat of Pakistan cricket, but one gets the feeling that the mix is rather incendiary -- frankly, one doesn't see Sohail and Miandad continuing their partnership till the next World Cup. By nature, each of these two wants to be top dog, he wants to be the sole boss. To work in tandem, to let somebody else's idea prevail, does not come easy to either of them.

Further, their alignments are in direct conflict with each other. Whereas Sohail seems to be an appointment of the Khalid Mahmood (chairman, PCB) lobby, Miandad is said to have been brought into the picture by the Majid Khan (CEO, PCB) faction. Given the standoff between Mahmood and Majid, the clash between Sohail and Miandad seems inevitable -- the only question being when, and over what cause, it will come.