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| April 25, 2003 | Friday | Safar 22, 1424 |
Foreign coaches better than Pakistanis: Ramiz Raja
LAHORE, April 24: New chief executive officer of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Ramiz Raja, reiterated on Thursday that he still supports the idea of hiring foreign coaches for Pakistan cricket.
Addressing a press conference, Ramiz another indispensible asset of PCB now wearing “four hats” simultaneously, declared that foreign coaches were better trained and always delivered. He said that Pakistani coaches were good but they could be groomed further by foreign coaches.
Besides his latest assignment Ramiz is also director National Academy, a commentator as well as an employee of a local bank.
An ordinary player and fortunate to play 52 Tests and skipper Pakistan, Ramiz was intrumental in the hiring of three foreigners for the Pakistan squad costing huge sums in foreign exchange for the World Cup (Richard Pybus, Dennis Waight and Daryl Foster).
Pakistan performed miserably and failed to qualify for the second round. He was stumped for an answer when asked what the foreign coaches achieved before and in the World Cup.
Queried if PCB intends to replace current national coach Javed Miandad with a foreigner, Ramiz said that he had always preferred the former skipper for the National Cricket Academy or for any younger outfit.
“Miandad has great motivation and youngsters can learn a lot from him. As most of the cricketers in the current team are young, I believe Javed is in an ideal position and very much fit with that stuff,” Ramiz said.
On cricket ties between India and Pakistan, Ramiz stated that he had approached Sunil Gavaskar and other Indian cricketers to urge their government as well as the board in this connection.
Ironically his appeal to the Indian cricketers did not get a positive response adding that as a PCB official his stand was the same which the board had already adopted.
He disclosed that the PCB Chairman, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, had offered him the post of CEO twice in the past but he refused, adding, he preferred commentary as a better source of bread and butter
“But now I accepted it because the chairman left no way for me to escape. It is a challenging task,” Ramiz stated while expressing his intention of continuing his career as a commentator.
Ramiz said that he would also be director of the National Academy which is to start by June this year.
“National Academy is more near to my heart and I want to run it by myself,” he said.
He said that besides the local coaches some foreign coaches would also be invited for the National Academy.
He explained that PCB would sign contract with some players to make them available for the national team. However, he avoided to divulge the amount to be offered to the players.
“It all depends on the talent of a cricketer. A good cricketer will get better incentives,” he said.
Talking about the new domestic structure which would be announced in coming days, Ramiz said that some suggestions from Imran Khan were considered regarding regional cricket.
PCB is forming eight regional teams which will compete with the departmental teams in first class cricket.
When asked why he needed to make changes in the domestic structure which he himself made in the past, Ramiz said that changes were part of life.
Recently, Australia also made some changes in its domestic structure, he added.
Ramiz said that departments were not playing their due role what they had been doing in the past. “Various star players like Shahid Afridi and Yousuf Youhana are still on contract basis. My own bank is offering a meagre amount of Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500 to a cricketer which is not enough.”
To a question, he said that it was a best time for the seniors to announce their retirement after the World Cup, but they did not.
He pointed out the impressive performance of the young team in Sharjah which was proof that the board was moving in the right direction.
He remarked that the PCB marketing department would be made more functional to get sponsors for lot of domestic cricket programmes for which restructuring of the board was in progress under which various decision would be taken in near future.
When asked how the list of 25 probables sent to the PCB chairman by chief selector Aamir Sohail was cut short to 21, Ramiz said he had no knowledge about it.
“I was not the chief executive when the names were finalised for the national training camp,” he said.
He said the board would promote cricket at school level with the collaboration of clubs.
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