Celebrated players don't always make good coaches: Younis Khan

Former Pakistan batsman Younis Khan said a high profile or a legendary batsman may not always turn out to be a good coach.

The 43-year-old, during a media interaction, said he believes coaches are helpers for players.

"I absolutely agree to that," the Mardan-born cricketer said while replying to a question on high profile players being good coaches. "I always say that the coaches are helpers. As a mentor, I always tell the players to share their problems without any hesitation and don’t think of me as a player who has scored plenty of runs and led the side in so many matches and this is why we are called support staff.

"The players should come forward and not think that they are appearing before [head coach] Misbah-ul-Haq and [bowling coach] Waqar Younis. This should not happen."

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He added that coaches should keep an welcoming attitude towards the players. "They should guide the them. When I go on foreign tours, I always tell them that I am available to discuss their issues — whether it be about the game or personal — around the clock. I don’t just want to be their batting coach. I want to be their mentor and they should discuss their problems with me," he said.

"You have often seen me combing someone’s hair, training with other players or laying pushup challenges. At the end, I learnt from the great Bob Woolmer that a coach is a player's best friend. He was a top leader and a great friend towards the side at that time."

Younis, who led Pakistan to its maiden World T20 title back in 2009, also urged players to share their issues with the management. "We are the coaches of the side and some of them are like our children. If I talk about Yasir Shah, Shan Masood and Azhar Ali, they were handpicked by us in departmental cricket when they used to come in the academies when we were players ourselves.

"We then saw them perform at club level. We searched for talent and included more players."

The former captain knows differences develop between the two sides. "They do drift apart at some stage of their careers. This is because of the coaches but it also happens on the players' side as they start to believe the impressions they might have while performing in front of them."

The former cricketer went on to say that players and coaches would not get picked if they give below par performances.

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