Geoff Lawson Geoff Lawson. Images: Aaron Scott

How does Australia fix their over rate dilemma?

There should not be an over rate problem. All you’ve got to do is get on with the game. It’s just become habitual – Australia plays the game slowly. Ponting is habitually slow. No one moves quickly between overs. Again, Australia’s introspection is poor. No one else in world cricket seems to be having these chronic over rate problems.Having said that, Brisbane was a seam bowling wicket, everyone was bowling seamers, and we were still only three overs down. I don’t think that’s a big deal because the match was all about seam bowling. You have to bowl to the conditions. The ICC have to be careful and make sure they don’t force people to bowl spinners when spin’s not appropriate. The quality of the game is more important than the quantity and that line needs to be drawn.

As a coach, how do you deal with a bloke like Shoaib Akhtar?

He’s a very interesting and mixed-up character who doesn’t listen to advice from anybody. That’s his problem. I said to him, “Once you can be truthful with me, I’ll deal with you. Until that time, I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t want you in this team.” And he never reached that point. I had other enthusiastic, keen cricketers who needed my attention more than a 33-year-old who loves the media exposure more than he loves playing cricket.

The Australians seem to be constantly at loggerheads with the Indian team. How does the mentality and philosophy of sub-continental cricket differ to that in Australia?

I think it’s pretty similar in many ways. But let’s take the Symonds-Harbhajan issue. Over there everyone sees Symonds as a troublemaker

who started it all and they have sympathy with Harbhajan. Even the Pakistan players sided with Harbhajan because they see the Australians as having a history of bad behaviour. Australian players, over there, are respected incredibly for how they play cricket, but they’re not respected for how they behave. You know, Hayden’s not well liked over there – incredibly respected, but not well liked – because he just stands at first slip and abuses people. But over here we say, “Oh, that’s how we play, we play tough.” Well, the Indians decided to give it back to them and the Australians didn’t like it. And that doesn’t reflect well on the Australians. If you’re an outside observer, as I’ve been in Pakistan, then you see the Australians being challenged – both in how they play and how they behave – and they’ve responded very poorly.

Why do Pakistani teams reach their potential so rarely?

It’s a systemic problem and they’re suffering it right now. The previous chairman was doing a great job – trying to fund regional academies and a national academy, trying to give them a proper process they can work with – and the new administration has come in and pulled it all apart. So they were heading in the right direction, now it’s just dreadful. The budget’s cut, the academies have been dispensed with, and a great management team’s been destroyed. And that’s classic Pakistan. This is the way the system’s run: the chairman’s appointed by a politician and from there down it’s all jobs for the boys. It’s not a meritocracy in any shape or form. And that filters down to the selection of the team – I had to deal with it time and again – where they just don’t pick the best players. You know, they’ve got that much raw talent over there, it’s just ridiculous.

– Aaron Scott