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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPMarch 12, 2015Hamid HassanAndy MolesHAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND Q. Everybody fit and available for this one? ANDY MOLES: Yeah, we have all 15 members fit and available. Yeah, we'll have a chat this afternoon just to finalize the side, but, yeah, we're fortunate to have the full group available. Q. Given England's situation at the moment, how good a chance have you got of causing the upset of upsets, really? ANDY MOLES: Well, yeah, England obviously had a tough time. The tournament obviously they'll want to forget, and we'll review from it. But from our point of view, we believe that we've got a shot in us. We came here expecting to surprise somebody. We nearly got it right with Sri Lanka, and if we can be consistent and do the things well at the right times, I still believe that we have a shot in us. But we'll have to be at our very best and we'll need England to be below par. But it's only a game. Everybody has an equal chance. Q. How would you sum up the game? You've had a great victory at this World Cup already. Would you say that this is the biggest game in Afghanistan's history? ANDY MOLES: I think every game they've played, honestly, to play Australia in Perth and New Zealand at home, the sides are one and two in this tournament has been tough. We had a difficult or disappointing game against Bangladesh where we didn't really get off the block with the bats. But as I said, we did well against Sri Lanka. From a difficult position we showed huge character to beat Scotland, and tomorrow what you'll see from this group is tremendous character and spirit, and if there is an opportunity for us to win the game, we'll take it. Q. Can I just ask, I know you want to obviously concentrate on tomorrow. But you know English cricket so well and the counter game. With all the talk of shake-ups and big changes in the offing, how do you sum up the English cricket scene as you like as they try to produce good players? ANDY MOLES: I've not been there for a while. I've tried to get into the English scene, but not been successful. I've coached everywhere else in the world. But I see really they need to have a look at themselves and there obviously need to be some changes. But I think the big thing is not to rush into anything. They need to take stock, have a look where they are. I personally hear the criticism to Peter, but as a coach, I feel sorry for him. We can do what we can, but ultimately when they cross the line, the players have to do the job. That's not to say that Peter's place won't come up under scrutiny. But I feel sorry for Peter at the moment. He's obviously worked hard, and I hear from the players that they feel that they've let him and other people down. But it's a collective thing. The coach doesn't win, the players don't win. Everybody has to take collective ability, and I'm sure they'll do that when they review the whole situation. Q. Hamid, there's been a lot of question marks over England's batting in this tournament. Do you feel like you can do a bit of damage tomorrow? HAMID HASSAN: Yeah, if we go to the plan and we bowl consistent in good areas. So maybe we can take them as soon as possible. We have a very good bowling attack, and hopefully we'll do some good performance tomorrow against England. Q. Can you remember when you played Australia and they got 400? HAMID HASSAN: Yeah. Q. Was there a bit of intimidation factor? Is there also the same applying through England? HAMID HASSAN: No, it was the day is gone already, so we're not thinking about that game against Australia. So they scored and played very well in that game. But our focus is on tomorrow's game. And we learned a lot from our mistakes what we did in the past matches, and tomorrow we don't want to do any mistakes. Hopefully we'll be better, a hundred percent on correct line and length. So we can put some pressure early on the England batsmen. Q. Will it be easy to bowl for New England than it was with Australia having David Borne and Glenn Maxwell and those type of players? HAMID HASSAN: It doesn't matter. It's better to be confident on yourselves. So we play with high confidence and without pressure because this is the game that we have to take it. Q. You talked about getting more consistent and being more consistent. (Indiscernible)? HAMID HASSAN: Especially thanks I want to say to coaches and before that especially on the outcome of that bowling, and few games we haven't bowled on target like against Sri Lanka, Scotland and Bangladesh. But in the last game against Australia, everybody bowled really, really well in the last 10 overs. So (Indiscernible) and especially from deliveries, and tomorrow we hope we can consistently bowl the first player in the middle overs and the last overs. Q. Andy, wanted to ask you, this is essentially about experience, because they bowled really well in certain stages but not very well in other parts of the game. ANDY MOLES: I think that's a common issue with all the associate sides. We play very, very well in stages of the game and fall off the game plan or lose concentration in the field with the bat and the ball. So we're all trying to improve at a moment of weakness, if you want to put it that way, will be average instead of slipping down and underperforming. In the game against Australia, I thought we bowled really well up front. More than missing two or three an over. But unfortunately we went a little bit too short, and it got off and once it got mentioned, it came back. You're quite right how many seconds, that was excellent bowling yorkers, so that's an example of started off not so well, but came back and grabbed the opportunity. One thing about the Afghans is they have huge character. You saw it against the win against Scotland. Not many sides can come back 110 or 120 whatever it was and 7 wickets down. They're a very passionate group of cricketers that have huge pride in their performance for the fans at home, and that's something that drives them. I think I answered that question for all of the associates. We all need to get better for longer periods of the game. Q. Obviously it's been a massive learning curve for all of your players. A lot to learn in this World Cup. Obviously talking about some of the bowling skills there, but are there any other key things that you think you've learned in the areas of the game where you need to get better that you've learned from this tournament? HAMID HASSAN: Yeah, of course. We've learned a lot, especially to me. If you bowl especially to good players in the game and a good side they won't leave it. They have to punish you. So it's better to be consistent all the time, and you have to think all the time where should I bowl and what is the plan for the bowl? So it's still a learning process for us, but hopefully in the future you will forget the mistakes that we did in these matches. And this was a good sign for our players so we can take this opportunity for the future and hopefully for upcoming matches. Like we have some more matches coming, T20 qualifiers are coming, so we have to apply there. And with the help of coach and the help of our other coaches we'll continue our performance. Q. After the Australian game, some of your players said they were scared. Do England hold any fears like that for you? HAMID HASSAN: Say that again? Q. After the Australian game, some of the players said they were scared? HAMID HASSAN: Scared? Afghan never scared, never scared. Q. Does England have any fears like that for you? HAMID HASSAN: No, no fears, no nothing. We have to play always brave. So we'll play tomorrow brave. Afghan is never scared. Q. How good could Afghanistan be if they had all of the advantages of England? ANDY MOLES: I think it's worked out well. They have huge passion. I think the one thing that we've got that some of the other associate sides don't have, we've got a group of 20 or 25 players from 19 levels to 18 underneath this group. And in that group there are probably I would say 8 to 10 very, very exciting youngsters of 18, 19, 21, 22 years of age, three of them being good seamers. Unfortunately, they're going to push you guys, but that's good, we'll have some competition. So how good they can be, we need fixtures. Our facilities are adequate. We've got indoor cricket now. We've got an a academy that could improve, but it's adequate. So we don't need so much in the way of new machinery and things like that. What we need are fixtures. If we can through this tournament win friends by impressing people, the Afghanistan is not just a war-torn area. It's a promising group of cricketers. If we can persuade people to give us the opportunity to play against them in the UAE where we played our home games, then I think that will be the best way that our players can move forward and get better. Q. I know you touched on this early, but where do you think England are going wrong or the English system is going wrong in not getting the best out of its talented players? ANDY MOLES: I think there are plenty of people more qualified than me to answer that question. I think the players have just underperformed. What the answer is for that, I don't know. I've not coached in England since I left as a player. Though I looked after teams for one season. But I've not worked in England. So my knowledge of the England game as it has progressed is not of great wealth, really. But it just looked to me as the players have let themselves down, and importantly, let the coach down, I think. Q. What does it mean to Afghanistan to have the chance to play at a famous cricketing cathedral like the SCG. Have any of the players even seen the ground before this week? ANDY MOLES: The only other players, obviously we've seen the game on TV. We walked in here saying it's got to be one that's next to Lords and the MCG, the best ground he's ever seen. So the guys had a bit of a fielding session last night on the field. We've walked around and been in the dressing rooms and been in the nets. So we've tried to get used to the facilities and understand and taken some of the history. It is got to be in the top four or five grounds in the world easily. So the guys have tried to just let them take in the atmosphere, and they're all looking forward to it. How do you feel about it? HAMID HASSAN: True. Q. For both of you, coming back to the associate nations, kind of tagged and your future of possible World Cups given what you've done here. Ireland have done well, and maybe Bangladesh is an inspiration. But how do you sum up how you'd like to see the associates figure in World Cups in the future? ANDY MOLES: I think back to when I was playing and that was a long time ago. But Sri Lanka came across and played three day games against us, and look where they've gone to now. We need the opportunity to play more, and I speak on behalf of all of the nations and the ones who are just below us as well. But what we desperately deserve is opportunity. For me, the World Cup secrets in the name. It's called the World Cup, so that is getting more information in the world play. Simple message. So hopefully the ICC will go back to their board meeting and reexamine their decision. There's been a lot of people that have come out in support of getting closer to this format. I mean, Tendulkar in Pretoria where we played them the last game, there have been numerous people that have said it's been a good ad vert for the game and development of the game. You can see over the last two or three World Cups by far the associates have acquitted themselves far better in this World Cup. And who is to say they won't be better next time? Q. From the player's point of view, how do you stress the importance of you being involved with the top teams? HAMID HASSAN: It's always like pressure whenever we're playing against biggest side in the world. But it's also you can learn a lot from good players. My friend he asked the question, the game against Australia, you were scared. There is no scared. But we haven't played many games. That is why there is a little bit of, I say, like inexperience against their side. If we play some more matches like a big team against big names in front of the media and people can watch, so maybe we can improve more and more. So this is a good point for us, and it's a good way the boys are playing really well. So in the future, hopefully we'll get some matches against bigger sides and we'll continue our performance. Q. Andy, you mentioned the character of your team and making friends at this World Cup. It's all looked like a pretty joyous experience for the Afghan players. Can you give a picture of how much fun they've been to work with as the campaign draws to a close? ANDY MOLES: Yeah, they've been great fun. With fun comes frustration at times, because I see the potential in this side or in this group of players. It is enormous. And at times I wonder do they believe how good they can be? Because, again, it's been a tough examination through this competition. The important thing is we take stock and we make sure that we look at things realistically. A lot of the players are batting better and better, and Sunny has batting 4 or 5 for us has had a wonderful tournament. When you think before coming to this tournament, he didn't have great form behind him, but he, for one, has stood up. Especially in Perth he got worked over a little bit, and he came out the other side. One thing about the younger players, they look up to the senior players. Culturally that's how it is in the Afghan nations. They respect their elders. People like this are standing up and the younger will follow. So how good can they be? I honestly believe they could be like Sri Lanka in ten year's time. But we need to get the opportunity. First bowl, and then show what we can do on the different stages. Q. The format of the World Cup is one thing. But (Indiscernible) is quite another one in series and all of that. Would you like to see a system whereby for instance, if an associate match beats an elimination in World Cup, that full member nation would be able to play you in between as a worthy opponent? ANDY MOLES: In an ideal world, we can. But we know in the future tours program, that can't happen. They've all been sort of mapped out the next three or four years. What we're trying to do is offer teams, for example, coming to Pakistan. Sorry, coming to the UAE to play there in Dubai where we'll be trying to make a pack in there. If anybody comes in there, why not play warm-up games which is great for them to get used to playing Pakistan. But for us, it's gold. It gives us the opportunity to play against these sides before it all starts against Pakistan. So we're trying to package ourselves for anybody going through to Sri Lanka perhaps might drop into the UAE to see us on the way there to give them experience in play in our conditions, which will be similar to where they're going to. But also it means that we'll get the opportunity to play against the players. So in all reality, people aren't going to say, yeah, we'll go play against Afghanistan. There is nothing in it for them, in all honesty. Let's be honest. But if we can package something together that the full member nations get something out of it as well as us playing against them, then we're going to be realistic and try to put something together where we can say to England next year you're playing against Pakistan in October. Come to us a week before. You want a four day game, a three day game, you want a 50 over game, a 20 over game, we'll do whatever you want. But give us the opportunity to play against better players. Same for all the other countries going through the region. I think if we can approach it in that way, it's actually got a package that can not only benefit us, but more importantly so the opposition coming through will give them a huge benefit than just playing net practice or match routine themselves. It will give a little bit of competition because we'll be trying a hundred percent, you can be sure of that. But getting them used to the weather, getting used to the conditions and getting used to everything. So hopefully that will be a win-win situation for everybody. That's the way we're going to try to tackle that issue. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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