LAHORE, April 26: Former captains Intikhab Alam and Javed Miandad, who were being touted as the two possible candidates for national team’s coach, have decided not to apply for the job despite the placement of an advertisement for the same by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on its website recently.

Talking to Dawn on Thursday, Intikhab said the coach’s was not an ordinary post but purely a technical one and to put it on offer through website was not the proper way to hire the high-profile official.

"It is not a post like that of chief executive or a director or general manager but a totally specialised one and there is no chance that I would stand in a queue to offer my services for the job," said Intikhab, the coach-cum-manager of Pakistan’s World Cup winning squad in 1992.

The PCB on Tuesday had placed an advertisement on its official website for the new coach. The post has been lying vacant since the tragic death of coach Bob Woolmer during the World Cup last month.

"The PCB should have an efficient database of the experienced candidates in the country for coaching job and they should be approached according to their credentials," said Intikhab. The former captain added that searching for a coach through website was certainly not a professional way to go about things and was, in fact, a bit of a joke.

Intikhab’s views were fully endorsed by former skipper Javed Miandad, also a former coach, who said placing of the ad on the website highlighted the casual approach of the PCB officials towards the game. "PCB is the headquarter of cricket but people working in it donot know how to run the game," said Miandad while speaking to Dawn on Thursday.

"Since the PCB’s only major criterion for the job is first class cricket experience, there will be at least a thousand applicants for the job I should imagine,” said Miandad. “And I wonder how the board intends to judge their credentials.”

Miandad was appointed as Pakistan coach after Waqar Younis’ men failed to qualify for the Super Six stage of 2003 World Cup. In the end, however, Miandad’s efforts to raise a new team did not fully materialise and he was removed by then PCB chief Shaharyar Khan in 2004.

Miandad emphasised that the coach’s was a technical post and there was very limited choice available for it. "People related to cricket are well aware about the right credentials of the cricketers and officials who qualify for coach’s job.

There is no need to go on the website, it would only create a mess," he said. "Soon after the World Cup debacle, there were some caricatures of PCB officials in national dailies which showed their desperate attempt to find a new captain through ads. This week, the PCB has done exactly that with the coach’s post," said Miandad.

"Under such circumstances, I am not willing to offer my services to the board, not at any cost."

Both Intikhab and Miandad lauded the methodical approach adopted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) who had formed a committee comprising specialised personnel to search for the right coach. "The BCCI has made a fair decision of forming a technical committee to search for the new coach and I believe it is a respectable way of doing things," said Intikhab.

"The BCCI has the wisdom of dealing with such the same case cannot be said for our board," lamented Miandad. "I don't understand who gives such guidelines to the PCB and what it will do with cricket in the coming days," he added.

There are reports that PCB is still keen on hiring a foreign coach although late Bob Woolmer's long association with the team could not do any wonders. Moreover, the experiment of hiring a foreigner trainer and physio has also failed to arrest the injury problems of the players.