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

The 43-year-old, during a media interactionlink, said he believes coaches arehelpers for players.

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

“The players should come forward and not think that they are appearingbefore [head coach] Misbah-ul-Haq and [bowling coach] Waqar Younis. Thisshould not happen.”

He added that coaches should keep an welcoming attitude towards theplayers. “They should guide the them. When I go on foreign tours, I alwaystell them that I am available to discuss their issues — whether it be aboutthe game or personal — around the clock. I don’t just want to be theirbatting coach. I want to be their mentor and they should discuss theirproblems with me,” he said.

“You have often seen me combing someone’s hair, training with other playersor laying pushup challenges. At the end, I learnt from the great BobWoolmer that a coach is a player’s best friend. He was a top leader and agreat friend towards the side at that time.”

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

“We then saw them perform at club level. We searched for talent andincluded more players.”

Source:link