Hassan Ali Commends Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mickey Arthur

“You ask any player who made debut when Arthur was head coach, he will call him the best coach,” he said. “He used to tell us our importance by calling us champion, tiger, lion, and match winner. He used to support us a lot and that is how players were built during his time,” he recalled.

“Saifi bhai, then captain, held a meeting in 2018 and told us that we are his main players. The players then used to be selected from a pool of 15 to 18 players. Those players performed for the team and we won matches,” Hassan praised.

Sarfaraz is widely regarded as a highly accomplished captain, having secured victory in two prestigious ICC tournaments: the Champions Trophy and the U19 World Cup.

Hassan provided an illustration of how Arthur consistently backed Babar in Test cricket, leading to significant improvement in his performance in the longer format.

“After every Test, there were talks about dropping Babar in the next series. But Arthur always said that Babar is a match-winner. He believed in him and see how he became a top batter across all formats,” he highlighted.

“You can’t take proper outcome from players until you give them proper chances,” he concluded.

Najam Sethi assumed the position of PCB Management Committee chairman last December, and soon after, an offer was made to Arthur to rejoin the Pakistan national team as the head coach. However, because of his existing contract with Derbyshire County Cricket Club, Arthur was unable to accept a full-time role. Instead, he agreed to come on board as the team director.

Under the terms of his current contract, Arthur will be physically present with the Pakistan team during select assignments, including the upcoming World Cup in India later this year. For other assignments, he will be available to the players through online means.