Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has appointed former New Zealand all-rounder Grant Bradburn as the head coach of their men’s team on a two-year deal after a successful spell as consultant. Former South Africa cricketer Andrew Puttick has also signed a two-year contract as Pakistan’s batting coach. Strength and conditioning coach Drikus Saaiman and physiotherapist Cliffe Deacon will continue to work in their roles. The appointments on the other positions will be announced in due course by the PCB.

Bradburn was in charge during Pakistan’s recent home series against New Zealand, where the Babar Azam-led side defeated the tourists 4-1 in the one-day international series and split the five-match T20 international series 2-2. Bradburn is well-versed about the strengths and challenges of the national side having previously served as the fielding coach of the national men’s side from 2018 till 2020 before he moved to the National Cricket Academy to work on the coaches development. Prior to his roles in Pakistan, Bradburn, a former New Zealand cricketer, worked as the head coach of Scotland men’s side. “Bradburn joins with plethora of coaching experience,” PCB chairman Najam Sethi said in a statement. “After having worked with our men’s side before and at the NCA, he understands our culture and philosophy of cricket well and is an ideal candidate to take our team forward. After the announcement of Mickey Arthur as team director, Bradburn’s appointment is another step in our endeavours of putting together a highly qualified coaching panel so our players can benefit from their experiences and dominate world cricket in all three formats,” Sethi added

Pakistan recently appointed former head coach Mickey Arthur as team director ahead of their three-match ODI series against Afghanistan and the 50-over Asia Cup. “It’s a great honour for me to work with a highly talented and skilful side like Pakistan as a head coach,” said Bradburn, who will aim to build momentum ahead of the 50-overs World Cup later this year. “We’ve been working hard on raising our game and are eager to showcase our growing skills. Mickey Arthur and I are excited to support, challenge and develop our players. The New Zealand series has been valuable to get game time and create clarity of roles, culture and brand to win.”

With an eye on the prestigious ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 trophy, the Pakistan team management has also unveiled a playing style with which it will approach the tournament to be played in October and November. The style branded as The Pakistan Way will see the team approach the One-Day Internationals in the build-up and during the mega-event with positive and bold tactics and attacking strategies. Pakistan are scheduled to feature in a three-match ODI series against Afghanistan before the 50-over ACC Asia Cup and the national side will use these opportunities to test their potential, experiment with the bench strength and fine-tune the side ahead of the global event.

Team Director Mickey Arthur said in a statement: “If a team wins without a culture, without a brand or without a style, it may work for a short period but will eventually fall. If a team is losing with a culture, a brand and its own style, then it is moving towards the right direction. So how do we achieve The Pakistan Way? We achieve this by winning while having our own culture, our own brand of cricket and our own style. We will not be satisfied with wins without that culture in the team. Pakistan as a nation is proud of its identity, culture and style. I love Pakistan and Pakistan cricket; I want to leave behind a legacy as a director where the rest of the world says we want to play The Pakistan Way. To achieve the on-field success, the team management will emphasis on the importance of building a culture where a player’s success is enjoyed by everyone and creating an inclusive environment where anyone can speak up at anytime and everyone is treated equally eventually resulting in achieving collective goals as a nation and team.”

Team manager Rehan ul Haq said: “Our success will depend on how well we work together as a team on and off the field. It is important to make players take ownership of team goals and enjoy each other’s success. We want to create an environment that will enable our players to perform at their best. An environment where there is less fear of failure but more will to succeed.”