Pakistan need to start afresh: Waqar

CNN-IBN's Sanjeeb Mukherjee is joined by a cricket legend, a former Pakistan captain and a man who struck fear in the hearts of batsmen, Waqar Younis. Viewers have been calling in with their queries on the tragic Bob Woolmer saga and the state of Pakistan cricket, and Waqar joins us to answer their questions.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Waqar, all through your career, you have scared batsmen simply with your pace, with your toe-crunching yorkers. Are you ready for all the questions coming your way?

Waqar Younis: We, I am, of course I am. And that's what I am sitting here, and I am ready to answer what people have to ask here.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Waqar, your very first thoughts after you heard what happened to Bob Woolmer.

Waqar Younis: Well, I heard this news at about 5 o' clock in the morning in Australia and I couldn't sleep after that. It was so devastating and it was such news that the whole world just shook up, and it's a very sad day. It's bad for Pakistan, bad for the Pakistan team, and bad for the entire world, because the guy was great for the game. You put all the coaches together and he was probably one of the best coaches. You will put him right at the top.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Waqar, if we look back, from August 2006 ever since Inzamam and his men walked out of the Oval Test, the Oval fiasco happened, and then the doping cloud on Shoaib and Asif, making them pull out at the last minute (during the Champions Trophy in India), and then when it boils down to this, Pakistan cricket seems to have hit rock bottom in recent times?

Waqar Younis: Yes, Pakistan cricket really struggled. I mean as you said, starting from the Oval and then going to the dope testing and then the change of captains during the ICC Trophy, the change of the cricket board and the chairman, we have been all over the place, and things haven't been really very good. And now, Pakistan are out of the World Cup and with Bob Woolmer's death, where can we go from here? Pakistan will go back and see where they start now.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: So, Day III of the Bob Woolmer saga took the most dramatic turn imaginable. A reporter from a local radio station in Jamaica claimed that the Pakistan coach had been strangled to death. Pakistan players have also been questioned as part of the investigation.

We have a person live from New Delhi, Sunandini.

Sunandini: Sir, I would like to say that cricket is a team sport. Then why is it that in Pakistan, and for that matter even India, we are quick to place the blame on the shoulders of one person, the coach, or at best also the captain? Whereas in other cricket-playing nations like Australia, when they lost to Bangladesh, nobody was baying for Ponting's blood or even for Buchanan's? What do you have to say to that

Waqar Younis: I think it's got to do with entertainment in our country, in our part of the world. We don't really have much of entertainment. And this is the only entertainment what the general public gets, and that's why they are very fanatic about the game. And I think that's why they just blame. They make you heroes in a day, and when they don't like it, like you saw the game between Pakistan and Ireland and the game that you saw between India and Bangladesh, people started burning their houses, throwing stones at their houses. So that's the way they are. They are fanatic about the game and they love the game. So, be very careful.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: In an interview last year, Bob Woolmer had said that "Pakistanis have a very critical culture, and some of the criticism the players get is too harsh. The country has grown a critical culture, but they should grow out of it." Bob Woolmer definitely felt the sort of pressure the players were under.

Waqar Younis: Well, of course when you are staying there, and living there and are coaching there, you are bound to get into that culture. And I think Bob was also feeling a lot of pressure and you never know, it might be one of the causes of his death. But that's the way the culture is, I mean, you can't change it overnight. It's going to take a long time, and I think we do need to change that.

Nitin: Was Woolmer's death due to stress and loss against Ireland?

Waqar Younis: I hope not, because that's really bad if something like that happened. About Bob, I tell you he was a very nice man, as a coach, he was very good coach on the field. The only thing I would say is that I worked with him for about 8-9 months and I found him a boys' guy. He was a man who will love his game, loved the boys and there have been speculations about him that he might have committed suicide. And I personally feel that is out of question. I don't think he has done that, bacause he took the game as a game, and that is definitely out of question.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: In fact, the famous South African sports writer and broadcaster Neil Manthob had himself said, "To play golf with Bob Woolmer was a lesson in calm. Bobby used to say that if you hit the ball in the lake, 'nobody died'."

Waqar Younis: That's right. I still remember his words when we lost here in the ICC Champions Trophy, we had lost badly, and he said, "Lets get on. That day is gone, it's lost, fair enough. Tomorrow is another day and we will try to win tomorrow."

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: The widow of late Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, Jill Woolmer, has not ruled out the possibility that he was murdered. She, however, is not ready to accept claims that he committed suicide. A devastating time for Woolmer's family.

Waqar Younis: Yes, I feel very sorry. It's a very hard time for them and I hope god helps them and get them through this time. It's not easy.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: We are now joined by Hari Prasad Pattnaik from Kolkata.

Hari Prasad Pattnaik: There have also been unconfirmed reports of match-fixing in Pakistani cricket. What's your take on that, and how does Pakistan cricket pick itself from here?

Waqar Younis: I personally feel that during such a big event and one cannot even be thinking about fixing matches, because it's once in four years and as a captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, I don't he will even be thinking about it. Losing, especially against Ireland, you can lose against bigger sides and thinking, 'okay, maybe'. But against Ireland, it's like Pakistan losing against Bangladesh in 1999. So it was a similar situation. Pakistan was under pressure and played badly on the day, and the Ireland team played really well.

Of course Inzamam wanted to do well in this World Cup and finish it off in glory. but unfortunately it didn't really happen to him. To replace him, I think, I know there are people to replace him, Mohammad Yousuf is there, Younis Khan is there, and there is Shoaib Akhtar also in the ranks. So I think Pakistan will go back and start afresh and start thinking fresh, they will probably bring in some new guys, some new faces in the team, and start working on that. I'm not really sure who will be the next captain. But most probably, it will be Younis Khan. They will probably give him preference.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Madan joins us from Hyderabad to ask his question.

Madan: We have some doubts regarding the death of Bob Woolmer. There are some conspiracies doing the rounds on his death. Some people feel that this is a murder, and some say he died a natural death. But the Jamaica people came to know about a strangulation angle. So what do you think about that?

Waqar Younis: Of course I feel very bad about it. We are all waiting for that. As I said earlier about his suicide thing, you can take that out because I don't think Bob was the kind of man who would do something like this. But the other thing we are waiting for, to murder or anything like that with that sort of security, it's still very hard to say. I think we should wait for another 7-8 hours, that's what they say, and hopefully we will get the right answers.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: People who have been closely associated with Bob Woolmer for many years, in fact even respected media people, many have in fact written that Bob Woolmer was the only person who from the entire South Africa squad in 1999, who could speak and react to the press even after so many days when others could not, when they lost their best chance to win a World Cup against Australia. If he digest that, he could definitely have handled Pakistan's defeat against Ireland.

Waqar Younis: He could. That's what I am saying, that he wasn't the kind of man who would think that 'okay, I have lost a match, I have lost my job, I should die'. He wasn't the kind of man who thought like that. He was a man who would absorb the defeat also, as well as the wins. So I think that's definitely out of question.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Sandeep from Delhi will ask the next question to Waqar.

Sandeep: Good evening Sir. Over the years, the Pakistani team has come across as a team of fighters, as a very resilient team. But now, they have been driven up against the wall without a coach, without a captain, without even a selection board. So where do you see the team going from here?

Waqar Younis: Well, first of all, they have to go home, and of course, everybody has resigned, the captain, Bob is gone, the selection committee is out. So I think Pakistan has to start afresh now. They have to bring a new coach, they have to selection panel, a new captain; and in a way, it might be good for the team that they will start all fresh. But it's unfortunate, the way things happened in the last eight months, things were really bad. Lets start from the beginning now.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Waqar, you have been involved with this Pakistani team for so many years. You have played for them, you have been involved as a coach yourself. You have seen the working of the Pakistan Cricket Board also. Do you think that there have been unnecessary interventions too many times in the game by people from outside?

Waqar Younis: I think it happens because non-cricketers are running the cricket board. The Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Dr Naseem Ashraf, he thinks he knows cricket, but I personally believe he doesn't know anything about the game. He interferes with the game a lot, he comes into the dressing room and tries to teach the boys who are playing international cricket.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: When you witness such an incident, did Bob not say anything to the Chairman of the selectors inside the dressing room?

Waqar Younis: Well, he is the Chairman. I mean, the boss is always right. So you can't really say much to them. But that is a wrong policy.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Waqar, one last point I would like to touch, we have seen so much of media speculation, so much of criticism, so much of outside interference in Pakistan cricket. One question a person would ask you is that every time something happens in Pakistan cricket, former fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz has to come out and say something? This time he said that Woolmer was probably murdered by a betting syndicate.

Waqar Younis: Well, I actually don't listen to him. The man says what he wants to say, and when you don't have your own respect, you don't really respect anybody. And I think he is the kind of man who would just come out with something or the other every time something happens.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Very briefly Waqar, what is the future of Pakistan cricket?

Waqar Younis: Not very good at the moment. Pakistan have to really go back, focus again and start from the beginning.

Sanjeeb Mukherjee: Once again Waqar, thank you for joining us on this special show.

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