KARACHI: Disgruntled former Pakistan head coach Mohsin Khan on Saturday again slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for not adhering to the procedure it had announced for national team head coach’s appointment.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn before Zaka Ashraf was reinstated as the PCB chairman by the Islamabad High Court, the former Test star said the PCB regime under Najam Sethi had tarnished its image by resorting to unethical practices as it handed contracts to Waqar Younis (head coach), Mushtaq Ahmed (spin bowling coach) and Grant Flower (batting coach) after rewarding Moin Khan and Zaheer Abbas with key positions.

“Moin [chief selector-cum-team manager] and Zaheer [principal adviser to Sethi] were bestowed upon with crucial roles after they had failed to deliver during two big competitions [Asia Cup and ICC World Twenty20] in Bangladesh,” Mohsin underlined. “Everyone knows how Moin fared as the head coach. Zaheer, despite being a world-class cricketer of his time, was no good either as the Pakistan team consultant.”

Mohsin came down hard on the cricket board for not sticking to the criteria it had put in place for the appointment of coaches.

“Believe me, at first, I was very impressed the way the PCB had planned to pick the coaches when it advertised the positions. But I was not only shocked but deeply disappointed when Waqar’s name began doing the rounds in the media and other platforms as the next head coach before the May 5 deadline,” Mohsin recalled.

“I again simply ask the board officials: if they had already made up their minds to have the head coach handpicked then why they needed to advertise the position? Whatever it was, I’ll repeat it was a ‘total farce’ which showed the ‘serious’ nature of the PCB’s top brass.

“They had gone for people with tainted background. Instead of taking note of a report published in this newspaper last month which forewarned the board that some former players, accused of wrongdoings, could damage Pakistan cricket, the PCB rewarded them.

“I had said during the press conference [in Karachi] that if that report was baseless and unfounded the PCB should sue the media house for damages. But since they have kept quiet it means that the report carried weight,” Mohsin asserted.

Commenting on the media briefing in Lahore last week during which PCB senior officials Intikhab Alam and Zaheer Abbas tried to defend the board, Mohsin reckoned it was just a futile exercise which bore no results.

“All I can say to the ‘rejoinder’ that it was just another attempt by the PCB to malign me and the exercise was based on a personal vendetta. I have utmost respect and regards for both Intikhab and Zaheer given their ages and reputation. But let me clarify that if they talk baseless things then I also have a lot to say as well,” Mohsin cautioned.

“As they had said, I was fuming inside for the manner in which the PCB had mistreated me. And why should I need to realise my ‘mistake’ as claimed by them for the words I had used during the press briefing. I was entitled to speak my mind and did exactly that, without holding personal grudges against anyone.

“The Sethi regime always talked a lot about merit. Where was merit? Was Waqar’s appointment on merit when the criterion is overlooked? Did the candidates applying for the positions were short-listed as claimed by the PCB? Aren’t cricketers with tainted past not obliged as the PCB has done? How come Moin was named coach [for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20] when he even didn’t apply but only conveyed his interest by telephone?” he wondered.

“It is a big joke, I’m afraid. Why are these individuals playing with Pakistan? For me, the country’s image always comes first. They are only playing with emotions of our cricket fans.”

Mohsin insisted that he didn’t approach the PCB for the sake of any job but he rather wanted to serve Pakistan cricket again after guiding the national side to an unprecedented 3-0 whitewash of England, who were the No 1 Test team when they played Pakistan in the UAE in early 2012.

“It was my desire to serve Pakistan cricket which compelled me to apply for the head coach position, not once but thrice. After the England series, a senior PCB official asked me to send an application. When I asked him what was the need of applying [for the job], he replied that it was just a formality and I shouldn’t worry about it because Zaka Ashraf had been very impressed with my performance as the interim coach,” he said.

“But when I came to know that the board was bringing in a qualified coach [Dav Whatmore] I thought it was the prerogative of the PCB to have a foreigner as head coach. But in hindsight, the decision was a big disaster. The board spent millions of dollars on that man but what were the results,” Mohsin queried.

Meanwhile, Mohsin hoped that the reinstatement of Zaka as PCB chief would bring back stability to Pakistan cricket.

“It’s a sad state of affairs to see Pakistan cricket in turmoil during the past some months. First, a chairman is reinstated and then replaced by another before the game of musical chairs continued with the reinstatement of the previous chairman. The story has repeated itself. Let’s hope that sanity prevails this time around, otherwise the world would scorn at our cricket and its administrators,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2014