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'Disappointed and hurt': Arthur hits out after PCB decides not to renew contracts
The Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday, after deciding not to renew any of the current coaches' contracts, announced that a recruitment process will be undertaken soon.
The contracts of head coach Mickey Arthur, bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, batting coach Grant Flower and trainer Grant Luden have not been renewed.
The PCB Cricket Committee, which met on Friday, unanimously recommended the change in the national side's coaching set-up.
The recommendations were forwarded and discussed with the PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani, who thanked Arthur and the other coaches for their services. “We wish them every success in their future endeavours," he said.
Arthur, who has been linked with a move to England, said he had done his best with Pakistan who narrowly failed to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
"I am extremely disappointed and hurt," the South African told AFP shortly after the PCB announced his departure. "I did my wholehearted effort to lift Pakistan cricket."
Arthur's contract expired after last month's World Cup, won by hosts England, and he had asked for a two-year extension. Reports say Arthur is on the shortlist of names for the next England coach after Trevor Bayliss departs following the ongoing Ashes Test series.
Recruitment process
As part of the recruitment process, PCB will now advertise the four available roles and invite applications from interested candidates with relevant experience.
Mani, while discussing the development, said: “I am thankful to the PCB Cricket Committee for submitting their recommendations following an exhaustive and detailed review process.
"The committee comprised of individuals who possess tremendous acumen, experience and knowledge. The unanimous recommendation of the Committee was that it was time for new leadership and a fresh approach. I am happy to accept their strong recommendations."
“The PCB remains committed to its fans and followers and we will do our utmost to ensure that we make decisions that continue to move Pakistan cricket forward in all formats.”
Pakistan under Arthur
Arthur joined Pakistan in May 2016, leading them to a drawn Test series with England that lifted them to the top of the rankings.
Pakistan also won the Champions Trophy in England in June 2017, raising their stock in limited-overs cricket.
That win, Arthur said, "brought on a whole new team of young players".
"We also became world number one in Twenty20 cricket in this period, which was an achievement," he said.
However, Pakistan has wilted in Tests in the last two years, losing 2-0 to Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates in 2017.
In all, Pakistan won 10 out of 28 Tests under Arthur, losing 17 and drawing one.
Pakistan have also struggled in ODIs in the last two years. Under Arthur, Pakistan won 29 of 66 ODIs, losing 34 with three no-results.
Comments (36) Closed
Cheif favouritism selector Inzimam should also go along with him.
Now someone else will be in the line of fire". Will end up the same fate in couple of years!
Good decision.
Stupid decision PCB. Mickey tells you like it is and you don't like it. Nothing has changed. Same old PCB politics and bureaucracy.
Please do not recruit unqualified staff or ex players who will take PK cricket back to 1990's style of play. A massive step backwards. Need to bring the game up to date on a par with every other cricket playing nation. Lots of excellent working going on in the background restructuring by Wasim Khan. This is the most important part.
bring in shoaib akhtar as bowling coach, our bowlers need aggression and some cockiness which they have been missing for a while.
Great decision. This Pakistan team will go a long way under the honest and humble leadership of Sarfaraz Ahmed in all three formats. Give Sarfaraz Ahmed his due share in leadership in all three formats and I am sure Pakistan team will prosper.
Pl opt for local coaches. We have plenty of talent here
Good decision. PCB was prepared to give Arthur an extension until T 20 world cup, but he suddenly bad-mouthed against his own skipper, Sarfaraz, who won Champions trophy despite being rated last in the tournament, brought ODI ranking up by 2 positions, brought Pakistan almost close to play the semifinal in world cup, under him the team remained number one in T20 world ranking. PCB new that Sarfaraz was under tremendous pressure from Inzi, who tried to get rid of him by sacking him against Australian series in UAE. It was the poor performance of Shoaib Malik, the perpetual conspirator who left the team after 3 ODIs, despite being the captain, that forced PCB to continue with Sarfaraz. They realized that the number 7 ranked team is not expected to be champions. Sorry. Mickey, you lost many supporters when you tried to play in the hands of lobbies and suggested removal of Sarfaraz, with the hope to please these lobbies. It backfired. You were dedicated but the last step was bad politics
The writing was on the wall for both Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mick Arthur after the poor world cup performance. Who will be next? Sarfaraz, Hafiz and Mailk?
Good decision.....as a coach if you fail to win world cup, you should be out.....hope PCB hires a pakistani as coach.....there are many greats available for coaching job in the country....
I think that Micky Arthur had done a good job. If the Pakistani boys don't change their fitness and dietary habits there's nothing much any coach can do. The motivation to be fit comes from within. The need, the desire to be the best comes from within the coach can only assist.
Thank you for your services. His emphasise on witness was highlight of his work.. sadly he messed up test cricket team. Can we please say goodbye to Hafeez as well. Sarfaraz is a liability too as a batsm3n.
Tough on Micky who has been brilliant and ruthless especially on fitness. We definitely needed to get rid of Azhar as he wasn't qualified and every bowler lost his way under him. Full trust a committee which includes Wasim and Misbah to make the right but tough decisions. Get Dean Jones in the setup as he has been brilliant with Islamabad United side for years.
Not only Sarfraz, Hafiz and Malik but also big question mark on the performance of Hassan Ali and Fakhar zamman.
En masse firings and dismissals solve nothing, if they are in order, they should start with the top posts in the Board itself. Surely, the buck stops there rather than lower down the line.
He had been made an scapegoat. Those that included old players like Hafeez and Malik and psychologically unfit Asif should be fired. These players were forced on Mickey.
Why not hire someone from Pakistan? Shoaib Akhtar seems to be good contender.
i am very unimpressed with micky atitude as he is a professional and should know that his services
are result based and results are not good
Wasim Akram is best suited
Shoaib Akhter is an excellent alternative we don't need anyone tainted with matchfixing
@Asif, please No. Another mistake to even consider. Mickey was great, he just had poor selection committee and parchi players..
Unless the players play with zeal and deliver their 100% in every match they play, coaches will continue to get fired.
Very bad, in this whole set up, he was the only one who had worked honestly and hard. Not good.
Great News.
Scape goat of plan. Srry fr Arthur
What happened with Inzi's contract? Arthur was a great coach, but we need a change for change sake.
Pakistan should now choose a local as coach and the choice could be among Misbah, Mohsan Hassan Khan and jalaluddin.
Sorry Mickey. You may have done your best to lift Pakistan cricket. Unfortunatley, the people running Pakistan cricket don't want it to be lifted and are clueless. Typical PCB politics and bureaucracy.
Back to biriyani cricket.
I think Micky has helped improve the Pakistani team a lot. However, all parts of the machine must work for it to be able to move forward. PCB needs to restructure itself. Any coach can't do much unless you are ready for the change.
Thanks, Micky for your contribution to Pakistan's Cricket.
The best part of the decision is to let batting coach Grant Flower go. He has been with the team for more than five years, still our batting side is the most unpredicted batting side in the world. He couldn't improve it at all.
Terrible decision, he gave us merit and made sure all the players were fit, he gave us the foundation to be successful, but typical Pakistani mindset to be ungrateful.
Unfortunately, his performance as head coach of greenshirts was not good and he could not deliver what was expected of him and his coaching team. Therefore, PCB was left with no other choice but to let them go. Hopefully, he and his team consisting of Grant Flower and Azhar Mahmood had a great time staying with greenshirts and travelling all over the world with the team. This is definitely not the end of the world for them and hopefully, they could find better opportunities in future with other cricket teams in the world.
Mickey said after the world cup exit that the draw vs sri lanka was the reason that they could not continue the momentum and lost. When a tactical manager says it lost because of rain and not because of something that they can control it is time to move on from them. It just means they no longer have answers. That may very well be the reason but hoping it does not rain can not be the answer.
Personally I think it was playing the experimental lineup in the england series prior to the world cup and not playing the two warmup matches with urgency the reason for not building the momentum. Pakistan was definitely not mentally prepared to play the first game against West Indies.
as people like inzamam, sarfraz and arthur start getting too sure of themselves they start favoritism and forget that ability is what is needed...pakistan had lost its path to the semifinals when New Zealand piled up a huge average and reached eleven points... and they did not narrowly lose getting to the semifinals...they had lost it halfway...not selecting a proper wicketkeeper, a wicket taking leg spinner and proper fast bowlers was the key to defeat...everybody else thrashed the west indies apart from pakistan...!and why not bowl Hasnain when other fast bowlers are failing...! the captain sure does not have an ability to think normally...!