Pakistan coach Arthur looks at the bigger picture

Mickey Arthur again stood firm on his decision to rest his key players despite being handed a series defeat by the Australians.

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur again stood firm on his decision to rest his key players despite being handed a series defeat by the Australians, saying that he was looking at the bigger picture - the World Cup.
Pakistan rested some of their first choice players including captain Sarfraz Ahmed because of a gruelling schedule and the team hurtled to a 5-0 ODI series loss.
But Arthur said it was a "calculated risk" that they had to take heading into cricket's showpiece.
"We go out to win everytime we play, without a doubt," said Arthur.
"We have eight of our top players not here. Morale takes a dent when you lose. It was a calculated risk that we took because it was the only time we could rest our players. Our players have played five months of cricket. Most of them had little niggles that they needed fixing. They all are on individual programmes, some are at the NCA, some are resting at home. And when we get back on Tuesday, we start individual work with all the players that were rested. So, the players who were rested will come back really stronger," he added.
The South African admitted that he was disappointed with the result but the bigger picture always took precedence.
"We are clearly disappointed because we are a very proud cricket nation and we represent 210 million people. But the bigger picture is we have a World Cup to win. We have to be playing in that World Cup final on July 14. And the best way for us to get there was to have our major players to have a significant impact in that World Cup and for that, we wanted them to fitter, faster and stronger, come the World Cup," said the 50-year-old.
The absence of those players meant some new ones were blooded and Arthur was quite delighted with how it panned out.
"I've been very proud of their effort and very proud of the work ethic of the new guys that have come into our set-up because they have never been exposed to these standards before and they have had to adapt fairly quickly. They know what it is like to play international cricket," he said.
Arthur also reckoned Australia would be one of the teams to beat at the World Cup.
"All the parts are nicely coming together for Justin (Langer). Australia will be a threat at the World Cup. You get Warner and Smith back, you put Starc back into that line up and Cummins back and it's pretty formidable. As I always said, there are upto seven teams that can win the World Cup," felt Arthur.
Meanwhile, Australian captain Aaron Finch said that they accomplished what they had set out to do.
"We had a real focus coming here. It was our last hit out before the World Cup and we wanted to make sure we are going into that tournament with a lot of momentum," said Finch.
"There will be some tough conversations that will be had over the next couple of weeks. There are going to be some really unlucky guys. Everyone who has had an opportunity over the last couple of months have put their best foot forward and played some great cricket. There is an idea about the make-up of the 15-man squad but honestly there are 17 to 19 players that we could pick and the squad wouldn't be weaker with any of them in it. So, it is a great position to be in but it is also going to be a really tough selection," he added.
james@khaleejtimes.com