Former Pakistan captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq has said he is ready to accept any coaching assignment and join the national team at a short notice.
After turning down offers from the board to become the batting coach of the team in recent times for different reasons, Pakistan`s most capped player said he was always keen to help out the Pakistan team.
“Even now if the board offers me any coaching position I will accept it and I am ready to join the team at a short notice,” Inzamam told PTI.
The 44-year-old has in the recent post twice turned down opportunities to become the batting coach.
In the first instance, he had differences with the board over his pay package and in the second instance he refused to apply for the post advertised by the board and send in his CV insisting the board should appoint him directly.
But after the board went ahead and appointed Zimbabwean Grant Flower as batting coach, Inzamam said he only wanted to work with independence and authority and that is what he had always told the PCB.
Inzamam, who has played 120 Tests in his career, said with the amount of cricket being played these days and with T20 cricket also getting popular, batsman nowadays needed to focus more on individual hardwork and hours of net practice.
“I think in modern day cricket batsmen need to focus on their batting themselves and work out things themselves. Because there is no shortcut to success and without hardwork or hours of practice you can`t go upwards.”
Inzamam said though teams now had fully professional support staff with them but eventually the players needed to work on their own game.
“A coach can tell you with the help of video analyst where you are going wrong and whether there is a problem with your stance or grip. But eventually a intelligent cricketer can nowadays pick these things himself by watching videos of his own batting,” he said.
“My philosophy is a coach is there to pass on his experience of all cricket to a player and fine tune him by giving him tips. That is how I like to work,” Inzamam said.
Ranked as one of Pakistan`s batting greats, Inzamam said that India was producing good batsmen because their new players had built upon and learnt from their seniors.
“I learnt a lot watching my seniors and I idolized them. But I also wanted to be like them or better than them. In the end it is about how you use your talent and skills not just coaching,” he said.
The former captain said the national team would hopefully progress well with Waqar Younis in charge and Mushtaq Ahmed also there to assist him.
“I played a lot of cricket with Waqar and Mushtaq from junior level and I know they are very committed men who know the meaning of success. I don`t think the bowlers in the team can get better role models than Waqar and Mushtaq.”