Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday appointed Mark Coles of New Zealand as coach of the national women’s cricket team ahead of their ODI series against New Zealand next month in the United Arab Emirates. Coles, who was appointed at the suggestion of Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur, has held several coaching jobs in New Zealand and is currently on leave to pursue his international interests. All three games against New Zealand will be staged at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium with the first kicking off on October 31 while the second and third scheduled to be played on November 2 and 5. Pakistan will also play four Twenty20 Internationals against the White Ferns on November 8,9,12 and 14.

A PCB spokesman said that Coles’ appointment was “on trial basis”, where he will be working as a volunteer with the national team and assigned only for the upcoming New Zealand series. “We have tried so many Pakistani coaches till date without better results,” PCB chairman Najam Sethi said. “It is time to get more professional input into women’s cricket like we have successfully done with the men’s national team. The intention is to set up a professional management team that will be given time to deliver results.”

Coles, who has played six List A games for Wellington, comes with an extensive coaching background in the New Zealand and Australian domestic circuit. He was previously development manager for Waikato Valley and held several coaching jobs, working as a high-performance manager for the Western Australia and Wellington women’s cricket teams. His highest coaching role till date at the international level had been with ICC Affiliate Vanuatu. He also coached the Wellington Blaze to a T20 title in 2013, as well as being part of the Northern Districts High Performance coaching staff from 2014. Coles has expressed the hope to improve the Pakistan women’s cricket team, which he says has been “developing really nicely”. Coles will arrive in Lahore in early October for a training camp, before heading to UAE for the series, stuff.co.nz reported.

The Pakistan women’s cricket team have been struggling in recent times and lost all seven matches they played during the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in June. The team, under the leadership of Sana Mir, finished last on the points table. In a scathing report presented by coach Sabhi Azhar after Pakistan’s poor show in the tournament, he singled out the captain, manager and a few senior players as the reason for the winless campaign. In response, Sana had said in an open letter that she did not intend to play with the team under the current setup of team management. Following the winless World Cup campaign, the PCB had decided to make drastic changes in the women’s cricket team setup and in the national team.

Pakistan women’s team have never had a long-term or specialised coaching staff. Over the past few years, appointments have been made on a series-by-series basis. Azhar, who is also Rawalpindi’s head coach, was brought in only a few weeks before the World Cup. Mansoor Rana and Mohtashim Rasheed have spent a longer time in coaching roles with the team in the past. Basit Ali briefly served as coach before being sacked earlier this year.

Published in Daily Times, September 26^th 2017.