LAHORE, May 20: Wasim Akram will be offered a coaching role in the national cricket academy and will also be honoured when he arrives home for the first time after announcing his retirement from international cricket.

Talking to reporters on Monday night, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia paid tribute to Wasim. “Cricketers like Wasim are born once in a century and I  considered him one of the greatest bowlers. The board will honour him when he returns home in September after the end of the county season in England.”

He said that Wasim had consulted him about his retirement plans for which he (PCB chief) advised the bowler to announce it in Pakistan. But Wasim had made up his mind to make the announcement in England instead.

The PCB chairman admitted that Wasim’s performance in the recent World Cup was good but the bowler himself refused to play in last month’s Sharjah Cup.

He said the decision of Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum’s judicial commission, which probed the match-fixing scandal against  some of Pakistani cricketers and during which Wasim was banned  from leading Pakistan team, would not create hurdles in  the way of Wasim being hired for the national academy.

He disclosed that Justice Ameer Alam was considering  the recommendation of Justice Qayyum imposing ban on Wasim’s captaincy while Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari was  investigating some reservations of ICC about Wasim in the light of that report.

The chairman said that the sports ministry had asked from the PCB some details about the possibility of Pakistan-India cricket revival for which a reply had been dispatched to the ministry.

He reiterated that Pakistan would only tour India if the neighbouring country visit Pakistan first.

Commenting on Pakistan captain Rashid Latif’s statement  that Pakistan should visit India, the PCB chairman said that he was unaware of any such statement from the captain but if he did then he should refrain from issuing such statements, as this matter was not related to him.