LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board has revamped its Coaches Evaluation Committee, which will hire new coaches for academies and regions to replace those who were appointed last year and were not handed contract extensions.

According to a notification issued on Wednesday, PCB’s Director High Performance Aqib Javed will replace Director Domestic Cricket Abdullah Khurram Niazi as the head of the committee. Khurram will continue as a member of the committee alongside Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson, Head of Coach Education Shahid Aslam and General Manager Academies Imran Abbas.

Hesson, Shahid and Imran replace former Test captains Misbah-ul-Haq and Azhar Ali, and Asad Shafiq, who is also a member of the national selection committee.

Aaqib had already announced he was planning to revive all PCB academies in Lahore, Multan and Karachi.

Hesson’s immediate concerns will be coaching the team during the upcoming series against Bangladesh and the West Indies respectively while Khurram is also part of the PCB’s committee which has to carry out scrutiny of 4,000 clubs across the country.

“The formation of this committee will contribute significantly to enhancing transparency, professionalism, and consistency across all coaching-related operations. Furthermore, it will serve as an essential support mechanism for the National Cricket Academy in achieving its long-term development goals,” the notification stated.

The committee’s terms of reference include “shortlisting suitable candidates for coaching positions; conducting interviews of potential coaches; recommending coaching appointments and deployments across various programmes; ensuring alignment with PCB’s coaching structure, policies and compliance protocols.”

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2025