**Rashid Khan appointed China cricket team coach **
LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has appointed former paceman Rashid Khan as the coach to train budding cricketers in China as part of the joint effort by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to give a fillip to the sport in the country.
Rashid, who played international cricket from 1982 to 1985 as right-arm fast-medium bowler, said: “The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) teamed up with the ICC to provide a special fund of US$ 400,000 to build cricket infrastructure in China. It is an honour for me that the PCB has put faith on me and I would coach China’s under-15 team which is scheduled to participate in the ACC Trophy, to be held in Thailand in December this year, for the first time”.
Karachi-born Rashid, who is part of the ICC and ACC delegation to get first hand information on the efforts being taken by the communist country to popularise cricket, urged the Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) to expose their teams to international competitions.
Pakistan is also planning to send its school team to China and the CCA could think about sending a Chinese school- level team to Pakistan, said 46-year-old Rashid who represented Karachi, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Public Works Department (PWD) and Sindh in domestic cricket from 1976 to 1994.
Rashid has in the past also managed the national under-19 teams and also worked as a junior selector. He was also the coach of PIA Academy cricket team that appeared against Asian under-15 eleven in May 2005.
The former Test player and PIA coach said he had learnt a lot from watching Bob Woolmer at work and had realised how important it was to get the right training sessions and equipment in place. “Coaching is a full-time job and you need to be prepared for it,” he said.
Source: http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=30482
