LAHORE 25 May (Online): The recent appointment of Hassan Cheema, a manager analytics and team strategy, in Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) new selection committee has garnered criticism and raised concerns among former cricketers in Pakistan.
The inclusion of a data-driven expert in the committee has sparked debates about the importance of traditional cricketing expertise and the potential implications of relying heavily on statistical analysis.
The new selection committee comprises of Haroon Rasheed (chair), Hassan Cheema (selection committee secretary and manager analytics and team strategy for national men’s side), Mickey Arthur (national men’s team’s director), and Grant Bradburn (national men’s team’s head coach).
Former cricketer, Basit Ali, argued that talent identification requires a keen eye and intuition, suggesting that a mere reliance on analytics might overlook certain intangible qualities that can only be recognized through experience and observation.
“I call it tata-based selection, not data-based selection. You can’t make junior teams based on this method. You need to have a good eye for talent to identify junior talent,” Basit said.
Salman Butt, another former cricketer, questioned the suitability of a person who has never played the sport to provide advice on player selection.
“A person who has never held a bat in his life will give advice on selection,” Butt said.
Wahab Riaz acknowledged the unknowns associated with this new method and wished the Pakistan team luck in navigating these uncharted waters.
“I don’t know how this data-driven will work. But good luck to Pakistan team and good luck to all of us, as we will see what will be the selection criteria now,” Wahab said.
Junaid Khan raised concerns about the potential confusion that may arise from players receiving advice from an analyst. He pondered whether Pakistan pacers would continue performing as before or whether they would be influenced by the analytics expert’s recommendations.
“It would be interesting to see if Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah will continue to do what they have been doing since the start of their careers or will they listen to the analyst and follow his advice. In my opinion it would confuse them,” Junaid said.
On the contrary, Haroon Rasheed highlighted the significance of including a manager analytics and expert coaches in the new selection committee, stating that it would be instrumental in taking Pakistan cricket in a new direction. He specifically praised Hassan Cheema’s appointment, emphasizing the benefits it would bring to the committee.
“Including manager analytics with expert coaches in the new selection committee will be helpful in taking Pakistan cricket in a new direction. Hassan Cheema’s appointment will benefit us,” Rasheed told Cricket Pakistan.
“People have a wrong perception when it comes to data, thinking it only consists of records of players and such. If that were the case, we could gather statistics ourselves from websites and other sources. It includes countless things, such as how a pitch behaves in the morning, what difference it makes after lunch, where fast bowlers can be successful, or which pitch can benefit spinners,” he added.
Former cricketer, Rashid Latif, also agrees with Cheema’s appointment but feels that manager analytics needs to take the captain on board to make better use of data.
“Hassan Cheema has experience with data, whether he worked with Islamabad United or with any other [franchise]. Now, his job is to convince the captain regarding the use of data and then see how he would describe the data to players and how he will use it in the match, so this is the first step,” Latif said.
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