KARACHI: Pakistan cricket chief Mohsin Naqvi on Monday announced that a new national team boss will be installed within the next ten days.
With the T20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean just a few months away, Mohsin admitted that it was a race against time for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to bring in a head coach and finalize the rest of the coaching staff.
The PCB is understood to have been looking for a foreign coach after letting Mickey Arthur go following Pakistan’s World Cup failure last year, but Naqvi said the board would now bring in the “best possible” person, whether foreign or local. , to take control of the Pakistan team which was failing before the task in America.
“I assure you that we will appoint the head coach within the next week or ten days,” Naqvi told reporters here at the National Bank Stadium on the sidelines of the PSL final between Multan Sultans and Islamabad United.
Naqvi refrained from divulging any details of the new appointment, stressing that leaks and false information forced Australian Shan Watson to withdraw from the race to become the Pakistan coach. “Some fake news (about the coach’s appointment) has caused a lot of damage to Pakistan cricket,” he said.
Naqvi said Pakistan’s top cricketers will attend a training camp in the hills of Abbottabad from March 25 and he would like a new coach to accompany them. The PCB Chairman also spoke on various other issues and emphasized that Pakistan will leave no stone unturned in its bid to host the ICC Champions Trophy next year against all odds.
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However, he avoided talking about the elephant in the room – India, which has steadfastly refused to send its team to Pakistan in the past – and said the PCB will knock on every door to ensure that the Champions Trophy is held successfully in Pakistan.
Last year, Pakistan was forced to adopt a so-called hybrid model for hosting the Asia Cup after India refused to play there. Most of the games including the final were shifted to Sri Lanka as several relatively minor games were held in Pakistan.
There are fears that the Champions Trophy could meet a similar fate, but Naqvi said he is not thinking about it. “We are just thinking about having the Champions Trophy in Pakistan,” he pointed out effectively, saying the PCB will cross the bridge when it comes to that.
Naqvi said he had a meeting with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) kingpin Jay Shah in Dubai last week on the sidelines of the ICC dispute, but refrained from giving any details of the interaction.
He said that the PCB will carry out extensive development work at the country’s three premier stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi ahead of the Champions Trophy. He also hinted at shrinking PCBs, which many fear are sinking under their own weight.
When asked if he would make major changes in the PCB, Naqvi said, “There are 900 people (working for the PCB) managing 11 players. Naqvi said that for the PCB to be financially viable, it would have to take appropriate steps.
