A question of mindset

If there was one blot on Bob Woolmer's wonderful record with South Africa, it was the reputation his team earned for choking in crucial contests and situations. It's difficult to ascertain what part Woolmer played - or didn't as the case may be - in what was essentially a collective mental aberration, but his new team are quickly forming a similar habit for falling, more spectacularly if at all possible, at final hurdles.

Since Woolmer took charge back in June, Pakistan have played in four tournaments in varying conditions around the world, where they have constructed a body of performances to suggest that they not only have the talent - that much, at least, has never in doubt - but that they are also developing the nous to win matches consistently in different situations. Sure, the optimism has been swelled by three wins against the Indians, but the Australians were pushed close at Amstelveen and Lord's, and there has been a discernible improvement in Pakistan's on-field discipline as well.

But every time the pressure has been cranked up an extra notch, they have crumbled; they have suffered a mass brain-drain. Twice against Sri Lanka, and once each against the Australians and the West Indians, they confirmed that the only certainty with Pakistan is that at some point they will implode dramatically. In short, they have choked.

The eerily predictable collapse against the Sri Lankans in the final of the Paktel Cup should impress upon Woolmer, Inzamam and the extended team management that above all other failings, it is this that must be examined. Some of the players may have faulty techniques, but that doesn't account for the moments of madness Yousuf Youhana instigated against Australia in Amstelveen. It doesn't shed light on Yasir Hameed's continuing recklessness; it doesn't explain Youhana's failure to see Pakistan home against Australia at Lord's and neither does it reveal the reasons in entirety behind Pakistan collapsing from 85-1, 45-2 and 65-1 to 168 all out, 122 all out and 131 all out against Sri Lanka in Lahore and Colombo, and against West Indies at the Rose Bowl.

No, there is more to it than just a lack of cricketing skills or technique, especially after the form they had displayed leading up to these matches. It is more than just a bad day. It is a question of looking at the mental make-up of Pakistan'si cricketers. It is time, maybe, that the Pakistan Cricket Board looked at hiring a sports psychologist - in the mould of a Sandy Gordon or Mike Finnigan - to work with the team.

Recourse to psychologists or psychiatrists, in any sphere of life, has generally been frowned upon in Pakistan. The situation is changing, particularly over the last decade, but in sport it is almost unheard of for players to seek out a psychologist to help with their games. And it isn't only because it would be seen as an admission of weakness. More worryingly, it is because players are not brought up in an environment where they analyse their own games to such an extent that they would be willing to look outside the box at how they can help themselves. It is not a part of their psyche to look at their psyche.

A player like Shahid Afridi for example - trapped now within his own swashbuckling caricature - clearly needs to look beyond the on-field role and persona that demands, ludicrously, that he has to hit out of the ground, literally, every ball. Talented players such as Yasir Hameed, Mohammad Sami and even someone as experienced as Youhana may not need as much work on their basic cricketing skills as they do with their attitudes to different situations. Not everyone in Pakistan is blessed with the temperament of an Inzamam or even Shoaib Malik.

Anyone who has seen Hameed fall, with tedious repetition, to his own impulses over the last year, or witnessed Sami's breakdown after that 17-ball over against Bangladesh, Youhana's ongoing problems in pressure-cooker situations and even Shoaib Akhtar's mood swings knows that the player and Woolmer himself can only do so much.

Wasim Akram, whose wife Huma, is a trained psychologist, used her services to get over his own distress when he was removed from the captaincy by a players' revolt. But he also recommended players to speak to her when he became captain again. At the time, it drew predictable cynicism, but it signified the type of innovative, broad-minded thinking that is rare in Pakistan cricket, and it resulted in a successful, albeit short-lived period in the late 1990s for Pakistan.

India's experiment with Gordon and South Africa's with Finnigan last year in England has demonstrated the fruits of such associations. Gordon's interview in the March issue of Wisden Asia Cricket reveals a line of thinking that has rarely been taken in Pakistan. He talks intelligently, not patronisingly, about a player's mental approach, his emotional mindset and, importantly, in Pakistan's context, the gulf between being talented and being great.

India, in particular, have begun to display the mental resilience that is the hallmark of any champion side and it is a part of their success story that Pakistan must strive to emulate. The PCB made a bold decision in hiring Woolmer earlier this year, but now they must realise that while Woolmer can and will deal effectively with technical issues, what goes in between the Pakistani players' ears might require a different type of assistance.