LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has appointed New Zealand’s Mark Coles as head coach on temporary basis for the national women’s team for the ‘home’ series against New Zealand in the UAE next month.

“Mark Coles will be arriving in Lahore on Oct 2 to join the Pakistan women’s team for the training camp for the New Zealand series,” a PCB media release said on Monday.

According to the PCB, Coles played six List ‘A’ matches for Wellington squad in the 1990s before retiring in 1996 because of stress fracture in his back.

Coles had worked as an assistant coach with New Zealand ‘A’ women’s team in 2000. He has been a satellite coach for Cricket Australia with Western Australia in 2012 and assistant coach of the Western Fury side. In the past Coles had also worked closely with two current internationals Nicole Bolton of Australia and New Zealand’s Leigh Kasperek whilst in Perth.

He also coached the Wellington Blaze to a T20 title in 2013, as well as being part of the Northern Districts High Performance coaching staff from 2014.

The constant poor performance of the Pakistan’s women team despite changes of selectors and coaches has finally forced the PCB to induct a foreign expert.

In the recent ICC Women’s World Cup in England this year, Pakistan lost all their matches after former first-class player Sabih Azhar was brought in as head coach in place of ex-Test paceman Kabir Khan just a month before team departed for England.

The national selection committee, headed by Mohammad Ilyas, has yet to pick probables for the upcoming training camp.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2017