LAHORE: Pakistan interim head coach Saqlain Mushtaq has shown no interest to continue his services with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Dawn learnt from well-placed sources on Tuesday.

According to the sources, the former off-spinner was appointed as the interim head coach only for the ICC T20 World Cup, which was held in the United Arab Emirates last year.,

It was expected that Saqlain, who was serving as the Head of International Players Development at the National High-Performance Centre here, would be offered a permanent role by the PCB but that has not happened yet.

Some reports also stated that he has resigned from the NHPC position as well.

However, according to sources, the PCB did offer the 45-year-old to take up the position of the High-Performance coach, advertised by the board late last year, but Saqlain turned that down as well.

Sources said the British-Pakistani believed the salary package was not good enough a highly-ranked foreign coach would deserve.

During Saqlain’s stint as Pakistan’s interim head coach, the national side had a memorable run in the T20 World Cup, before losing out in the semi-final against Australia. Pakistan also broke the 29-year-old World Cup jinx against archrivals India, beating them by 10 wickets during the tournament.

The Babar Azam-led team then whitewashed Bangladesh in a three-match T20I and two-match Test series as the visiting side before beating West Indies 3-0 in a T20I series at home.

Saqlain took up the interim role after former head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis resigned days after former Test captain Ramiz Raja assumed charge as the PCB chairman in September.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2022