PCB to have national coach shortlist by next week

KARACHI: National cricket officials would meet in Lahore next week to shortlist candidates for the post of national coach, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said on Thursday.

Zakir Khan, PCB’s Director of Cricket Operations, told this correspondent that a committee formed by the PCB to help it out in the appointment of a new national coach would meet in ‘about a week’s time’ to discuss the appointment of a new coach.

“We have received several applications for the job and the committee appointed
by the Board to make recommendations over the appointment of a new coach will
meet next week to discuss the issue,”

Zakir said.Zakir is a member of a three-man committee appointed by the PCB to identify a best possible coach for Pakistan. Former Test cricketers Mudassar Nazar, currently serving as the head of the National Cricket Academy, and Imtiaz Ahmed are the other members.

Pakistan are on the lookout for a new coach after losing Bob Woolmer in March. Woolmer, 58, was found dead in his hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica on March 18 and local Police later said that he was murdered.The tragic incident occurred less than 24 hours after Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup following a shock defeat against minnows Ireland.

The PCB claims it has carried out a major shake-up by bringing in a new selection committee and replacing previous captain Inzamam-ul-Haq with young all-rounder Shoaib Malik as the new skipper.

Now the Board is making efforts to find Woolmer’s replacement but has so far been snubbed by top coaches like Bangladesh’s Dav Whatmore and Sri Lanka’s outgoing coach Tom Moody.

But Zakir said that PCB has received applications from several good coaches from countries like Australia and England and was confident that Pakistan will have a solid coach by the end of next month.

He said that the PCB would not extend the May 15 deadline for receiving applications from coaches.

To a question, Zakir said that Pakistan has far not received any invitation from Abu Dhabi cricket officials to participate in a proposed one-day tournament in 2008.

“So far there has been no such invitation,”

he said adding that Pakistan would consider any such proposal only if their players are free of any international or domestic commitments during the period when the tournament will take place. Pakistan recently featured in a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi.

He said that the PCB is focusing on its domestic competitions and wants the country’s leading players to feature in them.

“We want to upgrade the quality of our first-class events and one way to do it
is by assuring that our top players compete in them.”