Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team New Coaches Lineup Revealed

Pakistan Cricket Team & PCB is going through an overhaul in both the administration & coaches’ lineup after the previous chairman Ramiz Raja was removed abruptly while Saqlain Mushtaq & Shaun Tait has completed their tenures as coaches. Pakistan Men’s team has achieved many big achievements under Saqlain and Shaun especially in the limited formats of the game while there is no arguing that they did struggle a big time in the longer test format to compile a winning strategy as well as utilizing the home pitch conditions. 

Coaches & Team Director

PCB under its new chairman looking to follow the modern coaching franchise-based model for the national men’s team in which they are looking to rope in a team director, a bowling coach, a batting coach as well as a fielding coach. 

Mickey Arthur is all set to be named as team director who will work to formulate a broader strategy at the top level he will not be available full-time or travel with the team but link up only during major assignments possibly online. It is because Arthur is currently working with Derbyshire in the English county circuit and doesn’t want to leave it. 

While there is no official agreement signed yet between Arthur & PCB, the media is reporting that an in-principle agreement has been reached and PCB has given Mickey all the power to shortlist and name bowling, fielding & batting coaches. 

For the bowling coach, Mickey Arthur has recommended Yasir Arafat who is a qualified coach and recently complete ECB’s Level 4 coaching course as well so he is someone who is professionally qualified for the role. Yasir has played only 27 International games but he has vast experience playing domestic cricket not only in Pakistan but he has played in Scotland, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia as well. 

For the fielding coach, Mickey has recommended the former fielding coach of the Pakistan Cricket Team, Grant Bradburn who has done a reasonably good job with PCT as well as at PCB’s high-performance center. 

The name of the batting coach has not been announced as of yet but Mickey is currently looking to do his screening for the job and like other coaches we expect the batting coach to be a professionally qualified personnel as well. 

Apart from coaches, there have been numerous reports from local Pakistan media is Mickey wants PCB to hire a tactical general manager like in T20 Leagues. Rehan Ul Haq who is the general manager of Islamabad United has been reported as a front-runner for the job. Rehan has done a fantastic job over the years for Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League and he is one person who has always maintained an aggressive style of play in PSL and picked the top available talent in the domestic circuit. 

Official Coaches Announcement

It is expected that the official announcement regarding the Men’s team coaches will be made in mid-PSL as Pakistan is scheduled to play a T20I series against Afghanistan in March while they are also scheduled to host New Zealand again for the shorter format as part of the preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup in India.