July 26, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LAHORE, July 25: Ramiz Raja became Pakistan cricket’s most valuable official when he was given “fifth hat” by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) naming him chief coach of the National Cricket Academy.

It was disclosed by PCB chairman Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia after inaugurating the indoor cricket coaching school of the Academy on Friday.

Besides being director and chief coach of the academy, Ramiz has other three jobs — chief executive PCB, an official in Allied Bank Limited (ABL) and a cricket commentator.

PCB chairman clarified that Aamir Sohail was only working as temporary coach and not chief coach, because Ramiz was out of the country.

In a press release issued a couple of days before PCB had mentioned Aamir as chief coach of the Academy for two weeks.

Tauqir said that the Australian bowling coach Daryl Foster would arrive in Pakistan in the second week of August for coaching in the academy.

Interestingly, there will be no student in the Academy when Foster will be here. Pakistan Academy team is touring South Africa from Aug 9 and Pakistan Juniors of Sri Lanka from Aug 5. Both the teams are getting training in the academy.

He said that specialist coaches were the need of the time and revealed that to groom specialist coaches, PCB would send chief selector Aamir Sohail, selector Shafiq Ahmad and junior team coach Aaqib Javed to attend coaching courses in England.

PCB chief said that manager of the Pakistan team Haroon Rasheed had recently attended a coaching course in England besdies Shahid Aslam, a qualified coach, was available in the country.

He said that total expenditure on the Academy had touched the Rs50 million and tt would increase further as some more facilities were yet to be provided there.

PCB boss declared that he was happy over the start of the academy. “But I will feel the real happiness when the academy will start producing top-star players,” he added.

He said PCB had dispatched the New Zealand Cricket Board the tour programme scheduled to be played later this year and would be released to the press after receiving confirmation from the Kiwis.

He said that academy would also earn money as cricketers from abroad were allowed to get training and disclosed that some cricketers from Nepal and Malaysia had applied for admission in the academy.

In the indoor coaching school, five artificial pitches, imported from Australia, had been laid down. Among them two are bouncy and as many are less bouncy and one of them of turning nature. The bowling machines are also being used for the practise purposes.