Lahore, Feb 24: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), led by new chairman Mohsin Naqvi, is looking to appoint foreign coaches and support staff to guide the national team through to the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in USA and West Indies in June.
“The new Chairman, Mohsin Naqvi is keen to look at the available coaching options for Pakistan and is more inclined to appoint foreign coaches and support staff,” a well-informed source in the board said.
“Naqvi has already asked chief selector, Wahab Riaz to speak to some of the available options and short list candidates as he is aware foreign coaches might be reluctant to join the Pakistan team because of the way Mickey Arthur, Grant Bradburn and Andrew Puttick were removed from their positions after the World Cup and their contracts cut short.” Veteran administrator Naqvi was appointed as PCB chief for a three-year term early this month.
The source said Wahab, who is very close to the Chairman having worked as his advisor on sports in the Punjab government, has been tasked with having initial discussions with prospective candidates.
The PCB recently released Muhammad Hafeez as team director though the former Test captain was assured he would get a three-year contract by the board’s previous chairman, Zaka Ashraf.
The future of the other coaches, including Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal, is also uncertain as they were brought in by Hafeez.
The source said Naqvi was also not convinced that Shaheen Shah Afridi was the best choice to lead the T20 outfit and ranked Muhammad Rizwan as a better option to lead in both white ball formats.
“Shaheen’s performance as captain in the Pakistan Super League is under scrutiny no doubt about that,” the source said.
Zaka had removed Babar Azam as captain in all three formats after the 50-over World Cup and also changed the coaching staff and selection committee relying more on former players who played for the national team after 2000.
The source said that obviously Babar is still unable to get over the manner in which the board forced him to resign as captain and added that since the change there has been some uneasiness in the Pakistan dressing room specially when Hafeez was director in Australia and New Zealand.
“Babar privately feels betrayed by Shaheen as he and the fast bowler, Rizwan, Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf have always been very close in the team.” By the end of March, the source said, Pakistan board and team might be seeing a number of changes.
The source also disclosed that there had also been a fall out between Hafeez and Wahab who were both given a lot of powers by Zaka but the former is now unhappy that Wahab despite being close to Naqvi didn’t support extending his contact as team director.–(PTI)
