LAHORE: With the management committee taking over the Pakistan Cricket Board, the dismissals of the old guard have begun.

Najam Sethi, the former PCB chairman who is heading the management committee, on Friday informed that that a new selection committee will be finalised on Saturday, when the fate of the coaching staff of the senior team will also be decided while an attempt will also be made to host matches of the upcoming edition of the Pakistan Super League in Quetta. All that is in addition to the four-month mandate of the 14-member management committee, installed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the old setup of the PCB led by Ramiz Raja was discontinued, which includes restoring the previous constitution of the country’s cricket governing body and holding fresh elections.

“The previous national selection committee headed by Mohammad Wasim has been abolished and a new one would be finalised [when we meet again] on Saturday,” Sethi told reporters, adding that other committees including cricket and finance had also been disbanded.

Pakistan’s coaching panel led by Saqlain Mushtaq seem to be headed for the exit door too as Sethi said he believes that foreign coaches are more suited to the national team as compared to local coaches. “Foreign coaches are more qualified, skillful and have no affiliation with any particular player, while in our culture our coaches have soft hearts for a few,” said Sethi, who had appointed the services of South African Mickey Arthur during his tenure as the PCB chairman.

“In my previous tenure, we hired Arthur as head coach and we became number one in Test and One-day cricket besides winning the Champions Trophy [in 2017].”

Arthur is currently coaching Derbyshire in English county cricket and is the most likely candidate for the head coach job. Sethi, though, dispelled the notion that the current panel will be rendered jobless. “It does not in any way mean the services of our star cricketers will not be utilised and we will take the benefits of their expertise in different ways,” he said, adding that at the end of the ongoing Pakistan Cup, the Provincial Cricket Associations formed under the new constitution of 2019 would be disbanded. “But no coaches would be sacked as the PCB would fulfil its contract made with them,” added Sethi. Sethi informed he had spoken with the Quetta Corps Commander and the Army was very happy about the prospect of the Bugti Stadium hosting matches of the PSL.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 26 2022

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