Former Pakistan cricketer Azhar Mahmood has no qualms about teaching England in the course of the ongoing Twenty20 collection, saying he’s glad to “cross on my expertise” no matter nationality. Mahmood, 45, appeared in 164 worldwide matches for Pakistan and was their bowling coach beneath Mickey Arthur earlier than a brand new regime led by former captain Misbah-ul-Haq was put in final yr after a disappointing World Cup. Now Mahmood, who is aware of most of the England teaching employees from his time in county cricket, has been introduced in as a bowling marketing consultant by the hosts for the three-match T20 collection in Manchester.
“Cricket has given me rather a lot,” Mahmood advised AFP in a phone interview on Saturday. “Now I need to cross on my expertise — it would not matter whether or not a participant is from England or Pakistan or wherever.”
Mahmood, criticised inside Pakistan for his England function, mentioned his scenario was no totally different from the one he typically discovered himself in as an in-demand all-rounder.
“I am an expert, I’ve performed in leagues with totally different groups,” he defined. “I do know my function.”
England head coach Chris Silverwood has handed over the reins for the collection to assistant Graham Thorpe, a former England batsman who performed alongside Mahmood at Surrey.
One other England connection is with white-ball captain Eoin Morgan — he was with Mahmood when the previous Pakistan worldwide was teaching Karachi within the Pakistan Tremendous League.
“They’ve seen my means working with gamers,” Mahmood mentioned. “Eoin Morgan advised me ‘we all know your expertise’. They’re a extremely nice bunch of individuals, the England teaching employees, and it is a nice alternative for me.”
With 50-over world champions England thus far sustaining separate pink and white-ball squads in a season compressed by the coronavirus outbreak, they’re with out frontline bowlers reminiscent of Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer for the Pakistan T20s.
Which means extra alternatives for younger pacemen together with Saqib Mahmood and Tom Curran, though they didn’t bowl throughout Friday’s weather-curtailed match at Previous Trafford, which ended with no end result.
Mahmood, a BBC tv analyst throughout Pakistan’s 1-Zero loss to England in a Take a look at collection earlier this month, believes it’s his expertise of working with youthful quicks, as a lot as any inside data, which will have led England to ask him to affix their set-up.
‘Grown up in my arms’
“Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir and now Shaheen Shah Afridi — they’ve all grown up in my arms,” Mahmood mentioned of his function in growing three pacemen who’re all in Pakistan’s T20 squad.
“They (England) have seen my means.”
Mahmood mentioned he was particularly pleased with the half he performed in serving to Pakistan win the 2017 Champions Trophy and in a nine-wicket victory over England within the first Take a look at at Lord’s the next yr.
“I used to be glad to assist them win the Champions Trophy and that Take a look at at Lord’s with a younger assault — we achieved rather a lot in a brief time period,” he recalled.
South African coach Arthur, now in command of Sri Lanka, mentioned he was upset by the way in which his three-year spell in cost ended after New Zealand pipped Pakistan to a last-four spot eventually yr’s World Cup on web run-rate.
However Mahmood knew what was coming.
Promoted
“I wasn’t unhappy,” he mentioned. “The PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) had requested me to increase my contract till the World Cup.
“After we did not get to the semi-finals, I knew from my very own expertise as a participant on the 2003 World Cup that each time you do not win one thing, or at the least get to the knockout levels, somebody was going to go — be it gamers or coaches. That is how it’s in Pakistan.”
Subjects talked about on this article
