LAHORE: A quick change in the early policy of giving three roles to Misbah-ul-Haq simultaneously as the team’s head coach, batting coach and chief selector of Pakistan has now been reviewed by the Pakistan Cricket Board and it has been decided to appoint a coordinator to bridge the communication gap between Misbah and six provincial team coaches.

Earlier this month, the PCB in a remarkable decision announced Misbah as chief selector, head coach and batting coach of the national team. It was also decided that in order to keep Misbah updated about the upcoming talent in domestic cricket, the head coaches of the six provincial teams will act as members of the selection committee an will work closely with Misbah.

After the first round of the ongoing Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, Misbah while answering questions to media, had said that the provincial coaches were sending him reports on every match and he was also receiving the video recordings of the matches so there was no problem in picking up fresh talent.

However, after just a couple of weeks, the PCB has decided to appoint a coordinator who will also visit the venues to personally watch domestic matches and will communicate with the six coaches and will finally report to Misbah.

The coordinator is required to have a minimum qualification of a level-II coaching course and he should be either an international or a first-class cricketer. He should also have 10 years experience in management besides having good command over English language and be computer-literate.

It may be mentioned that many former cricketers had termed the decision of assigning too many jobs to Misbah as an injudicious one as they believed it would not be easy for the former skipper to single-handedly carry out the jobs. It also came as a surprise to many that howcome a wise person like Misbah accepted the PCB’s offer knowing fully well what it would entail.

However, a swift change in that policy now indicates that in real terms Misbah was already beginning to find it tough to handle so many roles assigned to him.

There are reports that the PCB, which recently advertised for the coordinator’s post, has already selected someone for the job and the gentleman is based in England and is working currently associated with a non-cricketing job.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2019