3 more Pakistani players join ICL

Three more players from Pakistan have joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

According to an Indian media report, Lahore Badshahs, led by Inzamam-ul-Haq, has acquired the services of three more Pakistani cricketers to play in the ICL.

These three cricketers are Tahir Mughal, Shahid Yousuf and hafeez Khalil while one more Bangladeshi player Nazimuddin has joined Dhaka Warriors, a new team in the ICL.

Musharraf has approved new constitution - Ashraf

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has approved the amended draft of the Pakistan Cricket Board's new constitution, according to Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the PCB.

Ashraf told the News that Musharraf, PCB's patron-in-chief, is satisfied with the changes made.

"The President has given his approval to the new constitution and we are expecting a notification from his office in the next few days,"

Ashraf said.

"We are fully committed to implementing the new constitution and I'm confident that it will be a great development for Pakistan cricket."

Seven years have passed since the previous constitution of the PCB was suspended, following which affairs have been managed by different set-ups on an ad-hoc basis.

"There were some delays due to unavoidable reasons but now everything has been sorted out,"

he said. Ashraf, who took over as PCB chairman last September, had been criticised on his inability to get the new constitution implemented.

"The approval of the constitution by the President has proved that the PCB had no plans to delay it,"

he said.

"I've always been a supporter of having a constitution in place and God willing we will put it in place very soon."

Ashraf said that the new constitution will help in the functioning of the board.

"There will be a governing board which will have decision-making powers,"

he said.

"The board will help run the PCB in a more corporate and professional manner."

He indicated that the governing board would involve all stakeholders of Pakistan cricket.

PCB advertises for post of assistant coach now

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has placed an advertisement on its official website for the post of assistant coach.

The PCB is seeking a computer-literate coach with at least a Level-II qualification. Candidates have been given an August 15 deadline to apply for the job.

The advertisement says that the assistant coach would work under Pakistan’s new coach Geoff Lawson. The Australian is scheduled to join the national team by August 20. It says that the selected candidate would initially be offered a two-year contract.

It is widely believed that the PCB would hire a local coach to work under Lawson though top Board officials have said in the recent past that Lawson would get a free-hand to hire his support staff.

Currently, former Test batsman Haroon Rasheed and ex-Test pacer Aaqib Javed are front-runners for the job of assistant coach. These days, both are involved in the training camp of the national team in Karachi.

A PCB official said that the candidates for the job would be interviewed by a Board panel next month.

The Board also placed a similar advertisement for the post of national coach but did not get any worthwhile response from top international coaches. All three candidates short-listed by the PCB for the job — Lawson, Dav Whatmore and Richard Done — were contacted directly by the Board officials.

By placing an advertisement and making it clear that only a coach with a minimum qualification of Level-II would be considered for the job, the Board has effectively slammed the door on former Pakistan greats like Javed Miandad and Intikhab Alam, who do not hold any such formal qualification.