On Monday, January 30, reports emerged that Pakistan is in the process of finalising Mickey Arthur as their cricket team’s ‘online coach’. While the story can not be confirmed as yet, the very idea of an online coach baffled everyone, including the chairman of selectors, Shahid Afridi.
Mickey Arthur was previously the coach of the Pakistan team from 2016 to 2019. He is currently serving as the head coach of Derbyshire county in England. With his reluctance to leave Derbyshire, and Pakistan’s keenness to appoint him as the coach, reports emerged that he may take up the position as an online coach. The report sparked off a meme fest online as cricket fans couldn’t believe a cricket board would seriously consider the idea.
Twitter user Allah Baksh tried to predict the future of the online meetings conducted by Mickey Arthur.
As Mickey Arthur is going to be appointed as Online Coach…
— Allah Bakhsh (@AllahBakhshBalo) January 31, 2023
Scenes from future..😂 pic.twitter.com/Y0KBgXPHzS
Another Twitter user by the name of Hussaina used a famous scene from the popular sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’ to predict how this online coaching would go.
Mickey Arthur showing up for team practice sessions pic.twitter.com/E6DjUUqp7X
— Hussaina (@H_antaria) January 30, 2023
Usama used the meme of the ‘disappointed Pakistani fan’ to say how Mickey Arthur would feel while trying to coach the Pakistan team online.
Mickey Arthur after every match on Zoom be like: pic.twitter.com/5PLbRHcN1S
— Usama Speaks Cricket 🏏 (@iusamathebo) January 30, 2023
Predicting scenes of the online coaching, and indifference of Pakistan players was a common theme across most of the memes.
Future scene of Mickey Arthur giving online coaching to PCT🙆🙆 pic.twitter.com/xYdeb032ad
— Pakiza Amir🦋🇵🇸 (@amir_pakiza) January 30, 2023
Some users predicted what will happen if there is a network error during the online coaching.
Pakistani batters when a network error occur during online call with coach Mickey Arthur: pic.twitter.com/HEBARrmW4Q
— Dr.Biolistic (@Dr_Biolistic) January 30, 2023
While it remains to be seen if this concept of ‘online coach’ actually comes to fruition or not, internet is definitely having a lot of fun around it.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has undergone a lot of changes recently, following the change of government, as is the norm in Pakistan. Former test cricketer Ramiz Raja has been removed as the chairman of the board and replaced by journalist Najam Sethi. The selection panel has been changed as well, and now they are searching for a new coach, or maybe just an ‘online coach’.
