Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur sets the record straight

Despite Pakistan enjoying an impressive 49-run win over the Proteas at Lord’s at the weekend to keep their World Cup hopes alive, their coach Mickey Arthur still had to endure a post-match press conference that was full of “What the hell?!” moments for the South African media contingent.

When Arthur, who coached South Africa at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, sat down to answer questions, the first query was about the catches Pakistan dropped, never mind their victory, at a crunch time, over a team who have beaten them 50 times in just 79 matches. He was then asked questions about selection and why certain players had been left out of the starting XI.

Which left all the South African journalists a bit bemused over who had actually won the game.

The Johannesburg-born Arthur, undoubtedly one of the nicest people in cricket and famously honest and open when dealing with the media, eventually snapped when he was questioned rather sternly about man of the match Haris Sohail’s alleged lack of stamina. This after a scintillating 89 off 59 balls by Haris had taken the game away from the Proteas.

“We won today and he scored 80 odd off 59 balls, is that right or did I miss something? Why are you always talking negatively about our players? What Haris did today was one of the best innings I’ve seen. Let’s just be more positive for a change please. All of us were hurting after the last week, nobody slept much, but today was just reward. The performance today vindicated the talent in this team.

“We are trying to win every game and we are getting consistently better, but the guys were incredibly hurt by the media and public in the last week. Last Sunday I wanted to commit suicide! So you got a proper reaction today and hopefully we’ve shut up some people for a while. The players are incredible human beings, they try 100% every day and have incredible passion for their country,” Arthur said.

Last Sunday Pakistan were beaten by archrivals India in Manchester and their expat fans in England reacted furiously, shouting abuse at the players when they went out during the week and trolling them on social media.

As a former Proteas coach and stalwart of the domestic game, Arthur admitted that he always keeps an eye out on South Africa’s performances and said he felt sad at their exit from World Cup contention with two games still to play.

“I watch South African cricket with real fondness, they are my second team, and it is sad, I feel deeply disappointed for them. I listened to Faf speaking before me and it’s true, they are just short of confidence right now, something every team goes through. Now is the time for their supporters to get behind them because they will be hurting every day.

“It can happen so quickly to a team – you lose one game and then another, you’re under massive media scrutiny and public expectation and then you end up in survival mode. They just need one performance, that’s all, to lift them out of it. If Rabada just runs in and knocks over three batsmen with the new ball or De Kock scores a quick fifty then they can feed off that and things will turn around very quickly,” Arthur said.

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