Pakistan and Kiwis will face each other in UAE and New zealand in upcoming series.— Photo by AFP
LAHORE As former Test cricketer Abdul Raqeeb on Friday replaced Yawar Saeed as Pakistan team manager for the forthcoming series against New Zealand, ex-Test fast bowler Aaqib Javed also returned to the fold as assistant coach.

While the national selection committee had announced three different teams — for Tests, One-day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals against New Zealand — on Thursday, the selection of team management was kept pending as Ijaz wanted to convince Yawar to retain the job of manager, an effort that did not succeed.

Yawar, who had been working with the PCB since Ijaz took charge in October last year, was reluctant to continue the job after Pakistan's last tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year.

But on Ijaz's request he went to South Africa for the ICC Champions Trophy for the last time.

Interestingly, Ijaz again asked Yawar to take the responsibility till the end of the series against New Zealand.

Though Yawar was ready to accept it, but something wrong happened when Ijaz settled the team leadership matter with Younis Khan who had relinquished the captaincy in the wake of match-fixing allegations against the Pakistan team after they lost the ICC Champions Trophy semi-final against New Zealand.

Though Ijaz persuaded Younis to withdraw the captaincy resignation, he could not convince Yawar.

Unconfirmed reports said that the PCB chief's decision to introduce changes in the tour selection committee set-up, pulling out team manager, associate manager and vice-captain while keeping only coach, captain and chief selector in the body, did not make 74-year-old Yawar a happy man.

Shafqat Rana, Yawar's associate, is also not in the management as Ijaz appointed Asad Mustafa in his place, who last time did the job during the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

After that he was sidelined by the then PCB chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi. Aaqib Javed has also come back as assistant coach after being discarded for the Champions Trophy. His return clearly indicates inconsistency in the PCB policies.

Aaqib had been replaced by Mohtashim Rasheed for the Champions Trophy where he worked as the team's fielding coach.

Team management Abdul Raqeeb (manager), Intikhab Alam (coach), Aaqib Javed (assistant coach), David Dwyer (trainer), Faisal Hayat (physio), Asad Mustafa (assistant manager), Talha Ijaz (analyst), Mohammad Akhtar (masseur).

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