Salahuddin "Sallu" astonished many observers of the game when he made his Test debut at the tender age of 18 in 1965. However, he was to make a bigger impression with his remarkable stint with the administration of the game in Pakistan.
From 1980 onwards, he was a member of nine different selection committees and was twice chief selector as well. Most recently, he took over from Wasim Bari after the 2007 World Cup, at a tricky time for Pakistan cricket. He stepped down in August 2008, however, after an administration change.
In exclusive remarks to PakPassion.net, Salahuddin attempts to unravel some of the mysteries behind the selection process and also provides his candid opinion on some of the current players in the Pakistani setup.
By Pakpassion Staff (19th March 2012)
PakPassion.net: What are your thoughts on the current setup in Pakistan cricket, whereby the team manager is allowed to have a vote in the playing XI?
Salahuddin Sallu: No, the manager does not have a vote. In the selection committee there are 3 members: Iqbal Qasim (the Chairman) and along with him, there's Saleem Jaffar and Azhar Khan. Apart from them, there are two cockpit members, one of them is a leg spinner from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the other is from Baluchistan, Tariq Baloch. These cockpit members can give their input regarding selection matters, but they don't get a vote. The voting rights only belong to the three people who are part of the selection committee. The manager has no role in this.
However, yes, the team manager can bring his opinion to the table, just like if anyone else was asked about their input. When I was Chairman of Selector for Pakistan, it was written in my contract that I should take the opinion of the team captain, coach and manager into account. The reason for that is simply because the captain will have to go out there and play the team during a particular match. The final say belongs to the Chief Selector though and his two co-selectors.
Also, when there is a home series then the selection committee picks the playing XI. On the other hand, a touring selection committee is formed whenever the team goes away. This includes the captain, the team manager, the coach and one other senior member. There is a voting process as to who will be included in the touring selection committee, and while the 15 or 16 member squad is picked by the national selection panel, the playing XI are picked by the latter; based on the pitch conditions or the playing situation (i.e. the weather, etc).
PakPassion.net: When you were the Chief Selector last time, you made an important decision where for the Twenty20 World Cup squad, you picked Misbah-ul-Haq rather than Mohammad Yousuf. There were a lot of opinions regarding this selection. Was this decision your own or did Shoaib Malik also make a recommendation?
Salahuddin Sallu: No, Shoaib Malik did not provide any recommendation regarding Misbah-ul-Haq's selection but instead, it was my two co-selectors (Shafqat Rana and Saleem Jaffar) who, along with me, had 12 matches in hand to help make this choice. Deciding upon the squad was a challenging task because if you can recall (before the event), 8 or 10 players had left to play for the ICL (Indian Cricket League) and the PCB had thus banned these cricketers from playing for Pakistan. Then in 2007 (West Indies), Bob Woolmer's death occurred in some mysterious way and Pakistan also did not qualify for the ICC World Cup second round. After that, Inzamam-ul-Haq retired following the South Africa tour. So, there was a huge gap present because of these events and we had to introduce some new players.
Regarding Misbah-ul-Haq, the selection committee looked at him in 12 matches and when the fitness trial occurred, Shahid Afridi was number one while Misbah-ul-Haq was number two. He also batted brilliantly and considering all these things, he was sent for the T20 squad.
There was another player who was actually sent directly from the nets, Sohail Tanvir. The reasoning behind this was that none of the opposition teams had footage of this player, and he proved it by bowled out Jayasuriya in the Twenty20 World Cup. As you know, this can be an advantage because other teams use the video footage to figure out one's weaknesses and how a cricketer plays.
So we sent Misbah-ul-Haq, and he was the man who took us to that pinnacle in the final where we could have won the tournament, in the end it came down to that one shot. Misbah played that shot on Joginder Sharma who was India's weakest link - if he had played that, for instance, against the pace of Brett Lee or Shoaib Akhtar , the ball would probably have made it over the ropes!
PakPassion.net: It was a big decision, but it must be a certain satisfaction when you see how well he vindicated his selection and how now he is the captain of the Pakistani side?
Salahuddin Sallu: It certainly is for the chairman and selection committee. For instance, when I was a selector, there was Moin Khan, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shahid Afridi, players who we trusted because they had talent (not that we favoured them). When Saqlain Mushtaq came, there were options such as Haris Khan from Karachi, Akram Raza from Punjab, and Arshad Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, we selected Saqlain from amongst the crop and he turned out to be a world class player with the invention of doosra to his name .
PakPassion.net: My next question is actually regarding Saqlain Mushtaq as well. When you picked him, he was quite young. Therefore, when you select a young/inexperienced player, what do you look for at that time?
Salahuddin Sallu: There are a couple of things that are important. First, the cricketer must have some performance to show (i.e. Saqlain had performed well in Under-19s). Also, the unique thing about Saqlain was that he could bowl the doosra and the batsmen couldn't really pick that delivery, neither Salim Malik nor Inzamam-ul-Haq could understand it. Zafar Altaf was the Chief Selector back then along with me being the co-selector, and I assessed back then that this boy is bowling a delivery which is more effective than the flipper or googly. So, the committee was intrigued by this and Alhamdulillah, that boy never looked back and he showed everyone that he is a world class bowler. After him others like Muralitharan took up the art and now, Saeed Ajmal is also bowling the doosra. He too first came in when our selection committee was present.
PakPassion.net: Tell us about your resignation in 2008 when you picked Saeed Ajmal in the squad, but this was overruled and Shoaib Khan was picked instead. Rumor is that the Chief Secretary of Baluchistan put pressure on the PCB. Is this true?
Salahuddin Sallu: There is no proof behind any of this but I have also heard similar rumours as people have told me the same thing later. The thing is that the selection committee is independent. They don't really need to answer to anyone although the Chairman can surely ask them questions. When we saw that Saeed Ajmal can also also bowl the doosra, we picked him in the team. There was a tour match in Toronto, Four Nation Tournament involving Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Canada and Sri Lanka, and based on the type of wicket there Saeed Ajmal was selected in the squad. What happened after that was this boy was taken out of the team and Naseem Ashraf had left and acting CEO said that this team needs to be approved by the Sports Body in place, meaning it required the approval of the Sports Ministry - saying this was incorrect as the PCB Chairman reports directly to the President of Pakistan, and is the PCB Patron. Anyways, what happened was that the opener Shoaib Khan was selected instead of the offspiner Saeed Ajmal, and they decided to send that opener and so I decided to leave the selection committee.
PakPassion.net: Under your tenure, did you face pressure from the Pakistan Cricket Board members to select certain players?
Salahuddin Sallu: Look, pressure comes with the job. First, there is pressure from the people but you have to counter that. In this country, doing things with justice is not an easy task whether it be cricket or any other facet of life. You have to undergo all kinds of pressure, like there is pressure from the institution you work for, relatives, and everyone is hoping for their son to play for Pakistan. If your personal gain conflicts with that of the country's as in the past where someone's brother was playing, or someone's nephew was playing, etc., then the team becomes compromised. When you compromise your team to make other people happy, then the team's combination gets ruined, as evident through Shoaib Malik's inclusion in the recent series against England. It was said that he wasn't in the playing XI because of ?friendship?. If you didn't play him because of ?friendship?, then in the third match you did select him in the playing XI, but Shoaib Malik wasn't given a chance to bowl or bat. So was he being played for his fielding then?!
PakPassion.net: This is a good point that you have raised. On one hand, we have players like Shoaib Malik who are given plenty of opportunities and are not dropped despite poor performances. On the other hand, we have some players who get dropped only after playing one or two matches. How is this fair?
Salahuddin Sallu: Yes, this is wrong! Now just take Asad Shafiq's example. Sometimes you place him at number 3 batting position, and at other times you send him down the order. Now, if you take a look in the 3rd T20 match against England, the captain promoted himself up the order ahead of others. The boys who are good in the T20 format, such as Hammad Azam, Shahid Afridi, and even Shoaib Malik - if you are playing them, then send them up the order! Take Shahid Afridi - he is a world class player. I am telling you with certainty that any team in the world would take him in their T20 squad and feel proud. Now, you are sending him at such a position where he is facing like 6 deliveries in total. Say he scores 2 runs after facing one ball, and then what do you expect from him? To follow that with six sixes? Why change the batting order in the end and not send those players, who can win you matches, up the order?
PakPassion.Net: There are some selection committees that pick players, but those players never play any matches. When those players come back, they are dropped for the next series. What is the logic behind this?
Salahuddin Sallu: Look, this is what I have been saying. I as a selector like a certain player and he gets selected and goes for the tour, wherever that tour maybe such as the West Indies, Australia or England. After that, there is a touring selection committee. They might feel the selected lad is not up to par for the international side. They might feel certain conditions like the bounce of Australia might not let the young player perform to the best of his ability. A lot of time what happens is that these players make a lot of runs in domestic cricket but, as we know, there is a big difference between domestic cricket and international cricket. Yes, in Australia the difference between state cricket and international cricket is not too much. Their young players don't have as many issues when they come up the ranks. The selections in Pakistani cricket are different and it ends up really hurting the nation's cricket. In Pakistan, a young player gets selected, does the tour and doesn't play only to see his career finished without a chance.
PakPassion.Net: Precisely! Why does the same selection committee do this?
Salahuddin Sallu: Like I said, the selection committee is only sending the players. In 2007, when I was a chief selector we had a tour to Abu Dhabi where we had a match against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had played in the finals of the 2007 World Cup a little while earlier. Fawad Alam had scored the most runs in T20 cricket [domestic] at that point in time. He met the criteria for selection due to his performances and he was sent on the tour. However, the captain decided he didn't want to play him and only put Fawad in during the last match, a dead rubber. As you point out, there are more issues involving the touring selection committee than the normal selection committee. The selection committee oversees all the tournaments in Pakistan and they have a good know how of what's happening and make the final decisions. Yes, the chief selector takes the opinion of the coach and captain. If a player is performing like Abdur Rehman or Saeed Ajmal, he will get into the side. I remember looking for openers to solve our opening issue and there were some very talented boys like Nasir Jamshed, Khalid Latif and Khurram Manzoor. Yet, what is one to do if they score runs in one match and get dropped in the next match? One can do nothing as a chief selector at that point sitting in Pakistan!
PakPassion.Net: What is your opinion on how many matches a newly selected player should get? I ask this question because players like Imran Farhat and Shoaib Malik tend to get a lot of chances while others don't.
Salahudding Sallu: There is no hard and fast rule. I think if you select someone, you should be giving them a proper chance to prove themselves. At times though, there are conditions where the players aren't good enough or ready to play well in. It's easy batting in Pakistan because of the low bounce. Each series has different conditions and you are selected on this basis. In Pakistan, with the domestic cricket, or in the UAE, the players have the crowd behind them as well, so away from home is a different environment. It's all about their performance at the international level even though they perform well in domestic cricket. Honestly, this should be assessed properly by the selection committee and the captain. The captain should be honest with his assessment and look at the young player's ability to play the game at an international level. The captain should be going to the nets and looking at these players and making sure they are being fair. You can only pick the players, the captain has to play them and notice their abilities. You can't force them into doing anything. It is the captain's job to make sure they are properly assessing the young player and using them in the right manner. Take the example of Hammad Azam who is a good player - how can one justify only giving him a few balls to play at the end of the innings at no. 6 or 7 and expect him to score runs? I believe that captain has a big influence in making or breaking a player.
PakPassion.Net: The next question is on the subject of openers. Who, in your opinion, are the two best potential ODI openers in the nation?
Salahuddin Sallu: Look, you have to look at various aspects of the players. There is a young player like Ahmed Shahzad who has potential. There is also Imran Nazir, who is a terrific fielder and that is a facet of the game that needs strengthening for Pakistan and it's always been a weak point. When you are selecting batsmen, you should also be focusing on this aspect especially when it comes to ODIs and T20s. If the three openers that we had zoned in on had been worked with properly, this opening issue wouldn't have been there. The three openers we had looked at where Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif and Nasir Jamshed and they were all good openers. As you know though, when one selection committee goes and another comes, new issues start arising. We start seeing things like nepotism or increasing squad numbers to include certain players. Just look at Younis Khan, no doubt he is a world class player, but he's no Viv Richards that you send him at number 3 in ODIs. You should have a stroke player at that number three spot like a Zaheer Abbas or Ricky Ponting. We have Azhar Ali, Younis Khan and then Misbah who are all slow players who tend to take too much time and play out too many dot balls. It ends up increasing the pressure on the dressing room, the selection committee should be making sure they are picking the right players. Put in some stroke players to solve these issues. For those that are old, it is time to say ?enough is enough and thank you for your time? and bring in young players in their place.
PakPassion.Net: You named two specific openers, Ahmed Shahzad and Imran Nazir. Don?t you think that Imran Nazir and Imran Farhat have both been given lot of chances to prove themselves?
Salahuddin Sallu: I will give you an example, let's have a look at Taufeeq Umar. He is at his best in Test cricket. Even then, there was a time where he was getting out to the same delivery on the same spot, three times in a row. If a player is getting out with the same shot, help him eradicate those issues instead of discarding him. Opening is a specialized job, just like wicket keeping. If you are making Umar Akmal keep wicket, he will not do well. You should be selecting players like Adnan Akmal or Sarfraz Ahmed and make them compete for the spot. At one time, there was healthy competition between Rashid Latif and Moin Khan for the spot. If you put players in the wrong spots, they won't do well. You cannot afford to just play Umar Akmal as a keeper to accommodate him in the side, because one lost chance as a keeper could prove costly in the context of a game. If you remember Herselle Gibbs dropped a catch off Steve Waugh and it cost them a World Cup Final spot.
PakPassion.Net: Afaq Raheem is a young openers from Islamabad, what is your opinion of him?
Salahuddin Sallu: Yes, he is a very good young batsman. I remember he played many matches during my stint and we would send specific selectors do go watch him play. He is indeed very good. However, as you know, things changed with the arrival of the new selection committee!
PakPassion.net: We always hear about how talented Umar Akmal is, but when we see Umar Akmal, he never plays shots along the ground, always tries to hit over the top. Why does he play such shots?
Salahuddin Sallu: It is the coaches role to inform the player of the importance of shot selection. His shot selection is poor ? when he hits one six, he goes looking for another. I acknowledge he is very talented, is a quality fielded and has all the strokes. But he needs to learn which balls offer scoring opportunities and which are to be blocked, which need to be played to midwicket and which to fine leg. Umar Akmal's career is being damaged due to his poor shot selection.
If one see?s the way Shoaib Malik got out to a full toss recently, you will realize that a batsman must be able to choose the right ball for the right shot. If it's a full toss or a yorker and you play off the back foot then you can get yourself in trouble. If you play off the front foot it's a lot easier. Knowing which shot to play to which ball is the key.
It's not just Umar Akmal, a lot of our players' have poor shot selection. Umar Akmal, in my view, is not making the best use of his talent.
PakPassion.net: He has played quite a few matches though ? is there no blame on the player too?
Salahuddin Sallu: They say he doesn't play shots along the ground or on-drive but it is the role of the captain and coach to manage the development of such a talented player. Let him know he needs to score singles too ? there is always a lot of time and staying at the wicket is also important.
There are three key facets to cricket ? concentration, dedication and application. Unless a player applies himself and decides to stay at the wicket, it will always be difficult to score big. You may score once or twice, but not consistently.
PakPassion.net: Are there any middle order batsmen who you feel should get a chance?
Salahuddin Sallu: There are different forms of the cricket which need different types of players. Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq are good players. Azhar needs to learn to play a few strokes but it's clear they both have bright futures as long as the coaches work hard on them. A world class player isn't created overnight, and is one that can play in all countries, whether it be Australia, England, South Africa or India. This takes a lot of effort ? our batsmen become satisfied with their performances too quickly. A bit like Asad Shaifiq's shot after he got to fifty, I felt a degree of regret when I saw it, as he should have capitalised. When a player feels the situation is in his favour, he should try to stay at the wicket and score big.
Another point is that none of these players are finishers of the likes of Inzamam or Bevan ? what Pakistan need at the moment is a matchwinner.
If Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq continue to work hard, then they will develop into very good players. Coaches should tell Asad Shafiq to work on his bottom hand if he wants to become a good driver of the ball. He plays very well through midwicket and cuts and pulls well, very similar to Australian players .
PakPassion.net: Your thoughts on a player who has scored a lot of runs recently, such as Usman Salahuddin?
Salahuddin Sallu: I have not seen him but have heard a lot about him and it seems that he deserves to be given a chance ? he has scored a lot of runs. If he works hard, along with Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali, then they can certainly form a strong middle order for Pakistan.
PakPassion.net: Your thoughts on the Pakistani fast bowling? There doesn't appear to be anyone at the moment who can bowl consistently at high pace.
Salahuddin Sallu: If I tell you honestly, I haven't been watching too many fast bowlers over the last year or so, as I've been busy writing a book. But we need to work hard on bowlers like Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz while Aizaz Cheema should be thanked and let go as he is not young and cannot last till 2015. He bowls wide of the crease and his angle, doesn't trouble the right-handers.
Pakistan need to look at their U-19 players or those who are doing well in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy with a view to encourage and pick the likes of Noor Khan, Zahid Fazal, Ahsan Malik and Rameez Raja
PakPassion.net: The PCB haven't appointed a vice captain. Is this a mistake?
Salahuddin Sallu: It is. The PCB need to realise a captain must be groomed and a vice captain is important. In home series it may not be important, but in away series it is very important. The PCB should think about it. If Misbah retires, who will be the next captain? The number two used to learn from the captain and was subsequently made captain, like Michael Clarke learned under Ricky Ponting. It's a very important position whenever Pakistan tour.
Also on a side note, Pakistan need a media manager to handle both the electronic and print media. The players shouldn't be involved ? not the captain or the players so they can focus fully on the cricket. Saeed Ajmal's recent comments on his bowling action were misunderstood and it caused issues ? keep the players away from the media. Also they should conduct the interviews in Urdu, Punjabi, whichever language they feel comfortable about.
PakPassion.net: What about Imran Farhat? How many more chances do you think he'll receive?
Salahuddin Sallu: The next selection committee will decide. In my opinion the next selection committee is a very good one I have worked with Iqbal Qasim and Saleem Jaffar. They are people of high integrity and understand cricket very well. Playing and understanding cricket are two very different things. They understand cricket and will decide Farhat's fate ? it's now irrelevant who is someone?s son-in-law or otherwise. It comes down to merit ? those with the best attributes for the country and its pitch conditions will be picked for Pakistan. I am sure the new selection committee will make the right choices.
PakPassion.net: How about finishing with some shayari (Urdru Poetry)?
Salahuddin Sallu: With pleasure ! The following verse from Qateel Shifai aptly describes how everyone does new things when it comes to cricket ? whoever comes in, brings in a new solution!
"jo bhi aata hai batata hai naya koi ilaj,
baat na jaye tera bimar masihaon mein "
PakPassion.net:And finally, is there any special message for our members at PakPassion?
Salahuddin Sallu: Always respect your parents, whatever they are today are because of their parents and especially your mother. "Maa woeh hansti hai jo even narraz behi ho tho app kay haq kay liye dua karti hai, Aisi hansti dunya mein nahi hoti so always take care of them and respect them.
PakPassion.net:Many thanks for your time
Salahuddin Sallu: Thank you.
