Quotes from Mickey Arthur

I was always really worried about the conditions in India, especially with a group of young players. You can sit and you can tell players what it's like to play there, but until you've experienced it, you don't comprehend it.

Gone are the days of just containing through the middle, gone are the days of just soaking up pressure. You've got to be able to take wickets.

I'll never forget Cricket Australia telling me I was too soft and I'd been too soft with the team... I kind of didn't know what they wanted.

I was telling somebody the other day that I have had five semi-finals with South Africa and never got to a final. I got to one final with Pakistan and eventually got a medal!

Having coached in South Africa, you don't really work with wrist-spinners - you work with serviceable finger-spinners.

PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) is doing an unbelievable job in trying to resurrect international cricket. I just hope the World XI tour goes ahead and that will almost be the curtain raiser to, hopefully, get some international cricket back.

I never wanted to launch legal action, but Cricket Australia simply left me no option. James Sutherland himself said that, to an extent, I had been made 'a scapegoat.' I find that a totally unfair basis to end my career. The damage to my reputation and career has been immense, which means the chances of me getting a senior job are that much less.

When I lost the job with Cricket Australia, I almost felt I had unfinished business to do. I felt that my reputation with South Africa and internationally had been very good. And then you lose your coaching job, it is tough. It kept me three years out of it.

I am not going to tolerate players turning up unfit. They are professional athletes representing a country.

I've got a very soft spot for Mohammad Amir. As a person and as a cricketer, I admire him greatly.

I get disappointed when players arrive and are not at peak condition. Ultimately that is the reflection of the set-up I run. Ultimately that is the reflection of me and my support staff.

I had a meeting with Umar Akmal and discussed exactly where I thought he was. We are looking at the skillset that he brings to the Pakistan team. Obviously, he is a very intelligent player but he knows that he has to conform. He knows that he has got to pass the fitness standards that are required of him.

That unpredictability tag always sort of hangs around the Pakistan team, but that makes us very exciting as well.

Unpredictable - that's a word that us as coaching staff hate.

People think that South Africa and Australia are culturally similar but, having worked in both environments, I found that theory to be untrue.

I am a big fan of the five-bowler strategy.

Some players listen with one ear only.

You ask the guys in the dressing room, I am a very bad loser.

Make no mistake, I'm a huge admirer of Faheem Ashraf, and I said so in England.