LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain, who is currently acting as camp commandant of the national pre-season camp, has formally applied for the post of national team head coach while stepping down as a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board cricket committee.

Monday, Aug 26, was the last date to submit the application for the position of head coach and now Misbah, who has already been tipped to get this post, is a declared candidate for it.

Earlier, the 45-year-old Misbah had stated that whenever he applied for the said post he would first step down as the member of the cricket committee.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board today [Monday] announces that Misbah-ul-Haq has stepped down from the PCB cricket committee after expressing interest in applying for the role of the national cricket team’s head coach,” a PCB press release stated on Monday.

Steps down from PCB cricket committee

“Misbah met PCB director international cricket, Zakir Khan, on Monday afternoon and informed him of his decision, following which he formally applied for the head coach’s role.

Commenting on the development, Misbah said: “It has been interesting to see my name being mentioned as a future head coach of Pakistan team, but the fact is I only made the decision today.”

The media has been claiming for the last 15 days that Misbah is going to get a prominent role, and he may also be given the dual role of chief selector-cum-head coach, if the PCB decided to go for a new experiment.

The PCB has been considering three models in this regard and giving the dual job to one person is one of the three models.

“I am applying for the head coach’s role fully aware that the competition will be tough as I envisage there will be a few more very competent and highly qualified people applying for one of the most challenging jobs in the game,” the PCB press release quoted Misbah as saying.

“In saying so, I have to admit it is everyone’s dream to coach Pakistan cricket team, which has tremendous potential to be a force to be reckoned with across all formats.”

Meanwhile, the PCB said: “The PCB hopes to complete the process by early September so that the new team management can assume charge in time to prepare the Pakistan team for the forthcoming international season, which commences on Sept 27 with the ODI [in Karachi] and T20 International series [in Lahore] against Sri Lanka.”

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2019