LAHORE: Groping haplessly for solutions to the growing woes of the national team which returns from their disastrous tour Down Under this week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to critically review the performance of batting, fielding and other coaches and to discuss the same with head coach Mickey Arthur.

The PCB also contemplates recalling tainted fast bowler Mohammad Asif to the ranks after Pakistan’s fast bowlers failed to put up impressive performance in both New Zealand and Australia.

A key PCB official told Dawn on Thursday that many questions could be raised on the performances of players and the coaching staff but what really worried the PCB is the fact that it could hardly see on the horizon any outstanding players or coaches who could deliver for the Pakistan team in these trying times.

“There is a long list of tried and failed players and coaches and the PCB donot really want to go back to them for solutions,” remarked the PCB official. “Quite frankly, the performances of batting coach Grant Flower, fielding coach Steve Rixon, fitness trainer Grant Luden and bowling coach Azhar Mahmood are below par and bound to come under spotlight.”

“Though head coach Arthur is relatively new, the other coaching staff including Flower, Luden, Rixon have been working with team for the last couple of years and are yet to prove their mettle since the team has mostly been struggling in batting and fielding departments as well as bowling, especially in tough competitions like the World Cups and now in more challenging tours of New Zealand and Australia,” the official lamented.

It must be mentioned here that the PCB extended tenures of Flower and Luden for one more year in 2016 on Arthur’s recommendations.

Talking about bowling coach Azhar’s performance, the PCB official expressed his utter disappointment. “Our bowlers have always delivered in the past but now they have also faltered in a big way and have failed to make any impression on the opposition which reflect poorly on Azhar’s presence as bowling coach in the team.”

Getting down to solutions to team’s miseries, the PCB officials talked about the induction of young legs into the team and doing away with the overage brigade. “Introducing young legs, both in batting and bowling departments, is the only solution as we need to to discard the overage players,” maintained the PCB official while stating that the chief selector along with head coach would watch some young fast bowlers like Zia-ul-Haq, Mir Hamza and Wali Taj in the national team.

“Yes, the PCB can also recall fast bowler Mohammad Asif in near future as he is a quality seam bowler. It was very unfortunate for Asif and Pakistan cricket that he got involved in match-fixing and lost almost seven years of his career at a time when he was at his peak,” said the official.

“But now Asif can be recalled to strengthen the fast bowling department which has touched its lowest ebb in Australia.”

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017