KARACHI - Former coach Julien Fountain feels Pakistan cricket team's new head coach Mickey Arthur can become a hero if the England tour is a success.

Fountain said with a big tour to England and a new coach in Mickey, Pakistan has to be in a positive frame of mind. "Mickey brings a wealth of experience from a wide range of teams and formats. Clearly Mickey can become a hero if the England tour is a success, if the tour goes badly he becomes the proverbial whipping boy," Pakpassion.net quoted him as saying.

He said Mickey couldn’t change the world in a couple of months. "I hope Mickey gets a fair chance to plan and implement his own policies and measures over a suitable timescale, along with the cooperation of the board, the players, the fans and the media," he said.

He said England could be a brutal place to tour if you come from a hot climate. "Even at the peak of British summer, temperatures can plummet making spending long periods out on the field pretty taxing. Hard ball plus cold hands equals fielding mistakes and dropped catches. Then there's the matter of the pitches. Some will seam, some will bounce and don't rule out the swing from England's pace attack," he added.

He said one thing was for sure, both sets of pace bowlers had the ability to create problems for batters, so only the toughest batters (physically & mentally) would succeed.

He said there was a lot of cricket history between England and Pakistan. "There is some good history and some not so good. Pakistan is a proud nation, especially on a cricket field, and I hope that the team is judged solely on their ‘on field’ performance alone.”

"With a mix of experience and youth in the Pakistani Test squad, it will certainly be an exciting series. Both the Tests and ODIs will be tough fights and both sides will be keen to exert their dominance early on," he concluded.