The Pakistan Cricket Board is reportedly mulling to remove the Test team’s head coach, Sarfaraz Ahmed and captain Shan Masood from their roles after the team’s horror 2-0 drubbing by Bangladesh.
A PTI report quoted a source saying that the PCB held talks with former cricketers Younis Khan and Mohammad Hafeez for taking some key posts with the national team. “I can confirm that Younis Khan and Muhammad Hafeez have both had talks with PCB officials about joining the board in key positions. But things have yet to be finalised,” the source said as quoted by the news agency.
The source added that the advisors of PCB chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, suggested a revamp in the Pakistan Test squad set-up after the defeat against Bangladesh. “There is a proposal to remove Sarfaraz as head coach and hand him back the responsibility of managing the national under-19 and A sides,” the source said.
He stated that Sarfaraz could only be removed once the board reached an agreement with former captain Younis, who had previously set several strict conditions before accepting any role.
The source added that the board was keen on replacing Masood as Test captain, although he had requested additional time to lead the side during the upcoming away tours of the West Indies and England. Hafeez, he said, was being considered to step in as chief selector and also head the international cricket department but only initial talks had been held between him and the board officials.
“In Hafeez’s case, there is a feeling that since the former player has been pretty critical about the team and board in media roping him in might create an impression he has been offered a position to stop his criticism,” the source added.
Masood left the captaincy decision to the PCB after the 2-0 drubbing.ย “My intentions are clean. I took on this job to improve our Test cricket. There are things that need to be discussed with the board and the decision is always the board’s. But my intentions have always been on how to improve this side because [I feel] you should always take on challenges and accept opportunities,โ Masood said in the press conference.ย
โIt will always be my effort in any capacity – it doesn’t have to be that I do it sitting in the captaincy chair, or the player chair, wherever. You don’t know where life will take you, but I’ve always worn this shirt with pride and put everything aside for this. I think at this moment, instead of just talking about change, we need to think about how to improve Pakistan’s Test cricket,โ he added.
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