Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is set to hire former South Africa internationals Morne Morkel and Andrew Puttick as bowling and batting coach, respectively, of the Pakistan men’s team. The board has also agreed to bring Mickey Arthur on as a consultant while he continues as head coach of Derbyshire. The coaching group is designed in such a way that Arthur will play the role of team director remotely. He was also assigned to form the coaching panel that consists of all overseas personnel. Former Pakistan fielding coach Grant Bradburn will be the head coach while Cliffe Deacon (physiotherapist) and Dri­kus Saaiman (strength and conditioning) will continue with their jobs.

Morkel will formally join the side after his IPL commitment as bowling coach at Lucknow Super Giants. He has previously been with the Namibia coaching staff during the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and is presently bowling coach with Durban’s Super Giants in the SA20 League. He also had a stint with the New Zealand women’s team during the T20 World Cup in South Africa.

Puttick, 42, will join the Pakistan squad next month. His only international appearance was for South Africa in 2005 and has since worked within South Africa as a batting consultant. He recently had a stint with the South Africa women’s team as batting coach in the T20 World Cup. He was previously assistant coach during South Africa A’s 2019 tour of India and was involved with the emerging side. He finished his domestic career with over 18000 domestic runs playing for Western Province and Cape Cobras.

Bradburn, the former New Zealand allrounder, had been in the Pakistan system for over three years before resigning in 2021. He first worked as the national men’s side’s fielding coach, since September 2018, before taking over the new role at the HPC. In May 2020 when the National Academy was revamped, he quit the job 18 months before his contracted expired during Ramiz Raja’s tenure as board chief.

With the full-time coaching staff will be on location, Arthur will work remotely in a special arrangement with the PCB. Details have emerged that he will visit Lahore next month and will return before the ODI World Cup in a preparation camp. He won’t be traveling with the Pakistan team to Sri Lanka nor for any bilateral series. He will fulfil his full-time commitment with Derbyshire in England, a job he does not want to leave. Pakistan were without a full-time coaching staff since the contracts of Saqlain Mushtaq and Shaun Tait were not renewed. Since then, Pakistan have played just the T20I series against Afghanistan, that they lost 2-1 with an interim coaching setup. Pakistan are set to host New Zealand for five T20Is and five ODIs starting April 14.