Daily Times

After trying many foreign coaches, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to bank on local hands, and has appointed former skipper Misbahul Haq as head coach as well as chief selector for the men’s team and Waqar Younis as the bowling coach. This is the first time that a head coach is wearing two caps. Both positions are challenging and require great skill.

After the recent World Cup disaster, where Pakistan failed to make it to the semifinals, a drastic change was on the cards. The nation was relying on 1992 World Cup parallels but it was not to be. As the green shirts ended World Cup 2019 on something of a high note, it was said that Pakistan has a nice team which only needs to be groomed, trained and reformed (or refined). And the board has now brought in Misbahul Haq and Waqar Younis, both disciplined and successful cricketers, just for such a turnaround. The batting coach position remains vacant.

Misbah was the unanimous choice of a five-member panel, which interviewed several candidates. He replaced Mickey Arthur as head coach and Inzamamul Haq as chief selector. His task as a coach is to train and discipline a mob, consisting of early- and mid-career players. And as a selector, which requires one to stick to integrity, he will have to pick a team out of several contenders. He seems ready to meet the task with integrity and intelligence. The local press reported him as having said: “We have some of the most talented and exciting cricketers, and I will like to help them train and prepare in such a way that they can play intelligently, smartly and fearlessly. I am aware this will require a change in the dressing room culture but if we have to compete consistently at the highest level, we have to embrace these modern day requirements.” He will be aided by Waqar in the bowling department. The promising thing is the duo has worked in the past when Misbah was the team captain and Waqar the coach. *