Will Pakistan allow Woolmer to succeed?

I have a theory about Pakistan cricket. If the players and officials spent less time on their mobile phones, Pakistan would be world-beaters. I guarantee it. Penetrate close enough to the inner sanctum and you quickly realise that everyone is busy calling everyone else on their "cell" phones. Instead of training, they are on their cell phones. Instead of sleeping, they are on their cell phones.

Media men are calling players, players are calling the media. Sycophants are calling players, and players are calling sycophants. The players call each other to talk about the media and the sycophants, and the sycophants call each other to outdo each other in sycophancy. Sometimes the players call their wives. Often the wives call the players but usually they get an engaged tone or voicemail, which is why some players have two maybe three cell phones.

Sometimes the wives get bored of trying to call the players and call the media instead. The same is true for coach, officials, and selectors. The media, meanwhile, has a party publishing the garbage it hears from players, wives, and sycophants, not forgetting the rubbish it picks up from the coach, officials, and selectors. The public is mostly bemused.

Enter Bob Woolmer. Why a man of uncommon good sense, consummate tact, and unquestionable ability wants to bring order to the mayhem of Pakistan cricket is mind-boggling, but he deserves an immediate round of applause for bravery. With an outstanding record of success with South Africa, Warwickshire, and the ICC, Woolmer is the best-qualified appointment made in Pakistan cricket for over a decade. The constant screams for a coach au fait with technology have delivered the most innovative and technologically savvy coach possible.

Yes, he will be paid astronomically but the PCB could immediately save a few thousand by cancelling the silly one-month agreements it has signed with Greg Chappell and Barry Richards. In any case, Woolmer has a track record of success and international market-rates must apply.

Whether he succeeds or fails, it will have been money well-spent because Woolmer's appointment is a godsend, in the sense that it is a natural experiment. If he can turn Pakistan into a team consistently in the top two of world cricket, say by the time of the next World Cup, he will have succeeded and confirmed Rameez Raja's view that his administration has created the right climate for success. Anything less will be failure and it will confirm the majority view that Pakistan cricket is so shambolic that even an individual as skilled as Woolmer cannot operate effectively in its flawed environment.

For that reason Woolmer's appointment is a high-risk strategy for Raja and his board. Let's be clear at the outset that it is up to the board to allow Woolmer a free hand in devising and executing his strategy. That is what they have paid for: a man who knows his business and knows his method of producing successful teams is one that works. Any less would be a grand deceit.

But my worry is that Pakistan cricket will not pass the test. I suspect Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Bari, Rameez, and even Shahrayar Khan are too busy looking over their shoulders to offer Woolmer the security and stability that he needs. It is crucial for Pakistan cricket that this impression proves to be incorrect.

Woolmer's challenges are many. First, he has to instil some pride in Pakistan's players, who performed so spiritlessly against India. Second, he has to rouse Inzamam from his inactivity as captain. As one senior player recently told me, not by cell phone I hasten to add: "The only captaincy role that Inzamam can perform is the toss." Third, he must quickly bring Shoaib Akhtar back into the fold. Shoaib has been abysmally managed and the responsibility rests squarely with Inzamam, Rameez, and Shahrayar. Woolmer's appointment is a perfect opportunity to start afresh.

Fourth, he has to force captain, officials, and selectors into devising a clear strategy around selection that encompasses representative cricket at all levels. Most urgent is succession planning for the captaincy. Fifth, he needs some quick wins, otherwise the pressure to oust this "foreign" coach will become insufferable, and promises of a job until 2007 are not to be trusted. Sixth, he must retain his professionalism in a system that corrupts professionals. And seventh, he must make excessive cell phone usage a punishable offence.

Javed Miandad was an outstanding cricketer but an average coach. His techniques were outdated, yes, but his biggest failing was the same one that made him a great cricketer: an inability to understand his own limitations. Bob Woolmer is the exact opposite: an average cricketer but an outstanding coach, willing to use other people and technology to his advantage. The question is not whether or not Woolmer knows how to succeed, but it is whether or not Pakistan cricket will allow him to.