They say old habits die hard, a phrase Pakistan cricket fans will hope bears little truth as, after much deliberation and widespread rumour, Mickey Arthur was named Waqar Younis’ successor on Friday.
Arthur, a former South Africa and Australia coach, may not hold the gravitas of Waqar or his replacement at Australia – Darren Lehman – but his appointment should be seen as positive from a Pakistan perspective as long as all parties are prepared to finally show a united front.
With a shortlist that apparently contained twice England failure Peter Moores and the largely unproven Stuart Law as front runners, Arthur’s record in international cricket made him the pick of the bunch.
A foreign coach was always the preference and due to the instability of the country the world’s top coaches were never going to be forthcoming when the post became available.
In Arthur they have a coach who has led his country to the top of the world rankings and instigated a record number of consecutive ODI wins, two ambitions that will be mirrored by his PCB employers.
But while Arthur was able to instigate such positives at the helm of South Africa and Australia respectively, his task with Pakistan is an entirely different enigma to crack.
He inherits a team riddled with issues and a cricketing nation that all too often takes one step forward and three back.
Infighting, political influences on team selection and a disjointed domestic structure are just three of the immediate problems he faces.
And with a first return to England since the match fixing of 2010 on the horizon, Arthur has little time to get his feet under the table before the world’s gaze is fixated on his team.
There is little doubt that this Pakistan side has serious talent in its ranks but the country’s tendency to implode from within will be one the 47-year-old should be cautious of and look to bring to an abrupt end.
He must be given the opportunity to rebuild this team in his own image and the freedom to instigate change on his own terms.
That is a luxury not often afforded international coaches and Waqar will be the first in line to warn that it is nearly non-existent in Pakistan.
But Arthur is a strong character and you presume that he will have been given assurances by the PCB that he will be allowed to be his own man.
Whether or not those promises end up hollow or not is something only time will tell.
It must be said that for all the criticism aimed at the PCB – the majority of which is entirely justifiable – Arthur must also be prepared to make sacrifices of his own and be held accountable for them.
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There is no word as of yet whether he will move to Pakistan full-time but if the country’s cricket is to return to the heady days of yesteryear then Arthur should.
Waqar left the post with a long list of what he perceived as action points and motions that the PCB should instigate for the benefit of the game.
One of which was the necessity to improve Pakistan’s domestic structure and look beyond high profile players that were seemingly given a free pass despite their absence from the domestic game or lack of form in it.
With this, Waqar hit the nail on the head and if Arthur is serious about restoring Pakistan to its former glory then he must be on hand to not only observe the domestic game but also influence it.
The lack of an up-to-date national academy also needs addressing and it should be Arthur, if he hasn’t already, pushing for this in a bid to provide his new charges with the best possible opportunity to develop their individual games that ultimately benefits the national team.
On first glance Arthur’s appointment does look a positive move but he, the PCB and Pakistan’s players must now be prepared to put the past beyond them and focus on the future.