Nothing done to fill top two posts at Hanif Muhammad centre

KARACHI: The posts of director cricket academy and head coach at Hanif Muhammad High Performance Centre at National Stadium remain vacant.

The two positions fell vacant when former cricketers Iqbal Qasim and Saleem Jaffar quit as director and head coach, respectively, around three months ago.

Former cricketer Haroon Rasheed was posted at the centre, but was called back to Lahore within a few days. It was expected that PCB chairman Ehsan Mani would resolve this issue during his visit to Karachi, but nothing happened.

It has been two months since Mani took charge which is enough time to review the major issues of domestic cricket. Karachi’s cricket academy has always faced step-motherly treatment from the PCB’s top hierarchy.

The people at the helm took more than nine years to complete the academy and then one year to appoint the director and the other officials. The absence of two high officials has seriously affected the affairs of the academy.

It is pertinent to mention that Iqbal got 18 turf wickets and one cemented pitch prepared for coaching purposes. The cricket fraternity in Karachi was hopeful that the advisory committee formed recently would resolve the issue, but it has yet to hold its first meeting. The committee comprises Waseem Akram, Moshin Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, director academies Mudassar Nazar, director domestic Haroon Rasheed, director international Zakir Khan, and former Pakistan women’s team captain Urooj Mumtaz. The committee’s function is to give suggestions for the betterment of cricketing affairs in the country.