LAHORE: The game of musical chairs is going strong in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) with the arrival of new management committee under Zaka Ashraf. On Thursday, Mark Coles, the head coach of Pakistan women’s team, resigned citing “personal reasons”. The New Zealander took over the responsibility from interim head coach Saleem Jaffar, who was originally working as the team’s bowling coach with fellow former Pakistan men’s international Taufeeq Umar as batting coach. The PCB, under previous management committee headed by Najam Sethi, had roped Coles in on a one-year contract in April this year. He previously served as head coach from 2017 to 2019, when he resigned from the role citing family commitments. Coles will not be available with the women’s side for the upcoming white-ball series against South Africa, which is set to start from September 1 in Karachi. The sides will play three T20Is and three ODIs, all in Karachi.
“The PCB would like to extend its gratitude to Mark Coles for his brief stint with the women’s side and wishes him well in his future endeavors,” a diplomatic PCB statement, as usual when one’s services are not required, said on Thursday. “The replacement of Coles will be announced in due course,” the statement added. It is pertinent to mention that former PCB chief Sethi really liked Coles. “I have worked with Coles and he is a perfect coach for a women’s team — gentle but firm, friendly but strict,” Sethi had said at that time. “He is a well-respected coach and in his previous stint with Pakistan he worked incredibly hard for the team’s progress. Players only had good words to say about him, hence we have decided to bring him back and he will be joining the team in Australia with immediate effect.”
Coles was first appointed in 2017, on a trial basis, ahead of a series against New Zealand in the UAE, as part of the PCB’s efforts to revamp women’s cricket and bring in a professional structure. Until then, the PCB had brought in coaches on a series-by-series basis and had even gone into their previous 50-over World Cup, earlier that year, with Sabih Azhar only a few weeks into his job. Coles was offered a long-term contract but Sethi resigned in 2018, and a year later Coles resigned to focus on his family responsibilities. Months later he joined the Japan Cricket Association as a high-performance manager in 2020, and he has since worked with the Vanuatu Cricket Association and been a high-performance manager with the women’s teams of Western Australia and Wellington. He won a domestic T20 title in 2013 with Wellington Blaze. His last coaching job was with the Scotland women’s team, from February 2021 to February 2022. In his term with Pakistan, Coles led the women’s team to seven wins in 16 ODIs, including a first-ever series victory over West Indies in 2019, and 12 wins in 30 T20Is.
After the South Africa series, the Pakistan women’s team will take part in the Asian Games in China. The team will be looking to complete a hat-trick of gold medals in the Asian Games after clinching the top prize in the last two editions, held in Guangzhou, China in 2010 and Incheon, South Korea 2014. As per the ICC T20I rankings and tournament’s regulations, Pakistan women’s team will feature in the event from the quarter-finals scheduled to take place from September 22-24. The semi-finals will be held on September 25. Meanwhile, the final and the match for the bronze medal will take place on September 26.
Overall, in an 11-month period from August 2023 to July 2024, the Pakistan women’s team is scheduled to play five bilateral cricket series comprising a total of 15 ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25 ODIs. In addition to these 50-over matches, Pakistan will play as many as 17 T20Is. These ODIs and T20Is will lead to the 10-team ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and eight-team ICC Women’s World Cup in India, which will be held in 2024 and 2025, respectively.