LAHORE: Bowling coach Morne Morkel on Monday became the first man to quit Pakistan’s backroom staff following the team’s failure to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup in India.

The former South African fast bowler resigned a month before his six-month contract was due to expire after Pakistan finished fifth in the standings, with their final defeat by outgoing champions England on Saturday ruling them out of contention for the knockout stages of the tournament.

Morkel had linked up with the Pakistan squad in June, being the last man to join the coaching staff led by team director Mickey Arthur and head coach Grant Bradburn.

During his time with the team, Pakistan won a Test series against Sri Lanka and a One-day International series against Afghanistan. Pakistan’s much-vaunted pace attack, however, failed to fire at the Asia Cup and the World Cup.

“Pakistan Cricket Board will announce his replacement in due course,” the PCB said in a short statement without providing any reason for Morkel’s departure.

Morkel’s departure could be the first of many with current PCB interim management committee led by Zaka Ashraf having strong reservations over the coaching setup.

Arthur was appointed by former management committee chairman Najam Sethi and although Zaka did not change him, there had been rumblings over the fact that he would only join the team during the off-season for English county side Derbyshire.

Sources told Dawn that the PCB high-ups were waiting for the report by Arthur, Bradburn, captain Babar Azam and the team manager before it begins investigating the reasons behind the team’s poor show in India.

“Arthur is to visit Lahore in the next few days, most probably on Thursday to submit his report,” sources said.

Babar is also under fire for Pakistan’s underwhelming performance as they won just four out of nine matches at the tournament.

Sources, however, said that Zaka was against any big changes in the captaincy with Pakistan’s tour of Australia for a three-match Test series set for next month.

The training camp to select the team will be held in Rawalpindi from Nov 24 with former captain Sarfraz Ahmed, who has the backing from several quarters to take over the reins of the Test team, also likely to be summoned after he led Karachi Whites to the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy title last month.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2023