New captain, coach to be announced on 7th May
LAHORE: New captain and coach for the Pakistan cricket team will be named on May 7 and his appointment will be on series to series basis.
This was stated by the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Dr Nasim Ashraf, at a news conference here on Tuesday after a meeting of the ad-hoc committee which met for the first time after Pakistan’s debacle in the World Cup in the West Indies.
Also present were chief operating officer PCB, Shafqat Nagmi, and director marketing and communication, Dr Ahsan Malik.
Dr Nasim said the ad-hoc committee meeting could not finalise the name of the captain and coach as it does not want to act in haste and wants to conclude these issues after a thorough evaluation by recommending suitable candidates for the respective jobs.
***“Hopefully, the captain will be appointed on series to series basis while coach will be appointed on a two-year term,” he said.
“The ad-hoc committee was of the view that these positions be filled before the national team proceeds to Abu Dhabi to play a three match series against Sri Lanka. The proposed series is likely to be held from May 10-15,” he added.***
PCB chief said the captain will be appointed, who can fulfil the laid down criteria of justifying his place in the team based on his individual performances, meets prime fitness standards and have necessary leadership qualities to lead the side with pride. “We will not be making any compromise on these standards and even the players who will not be meeting required standards will not be getting a place, no matter how big or small they are in status,” he warned.
Dr Nasim Ashraf said the ad-hoc committee has also abolished all the pay categories (A, B and C) after cancellation of players’ contract.
“One thing is clear now; from now on only those players will be the part of the team who really deserve to be there and there would be no compromise on discipline as well,” he continued.
He said PCB will study players’ contracts of three to four cricket boards before finalising its own players’ contract.
He said the main coaching facility of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) has been named after Pakistan team’s late coach Bob Woolmer to pay him respect.
He said no decision was taken to appoint a paid selection committee and hopefully the matter will be settled down in the next meeting of the ad-hoc committee.
He said a modern media centre will be built in Gadaffi stadium while the offices inside the Gadaffi stadium will also be re-located and the space available will be utilised to have corporate boxes to generate money during the matches.
“We are in process to hire the services of a curator from South Africa to re-lay our pitches and we want to introduce a new culture of having lively wickets,” he said.
