PAK EMERGING TEAM NAMED: PCB ignores better coaches

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board has ignored highly qualified coaches and instead has opted for Level II qualified Ejaz Ahmad Junior as the head coach of the 15-member Pakistan Emerging squad.

The squad was named on Thursday to feature in the Emerging Teams Asia Cup, the Group B matches of which will be played in Karachi from December 6. Sri Lanka will host Group A games from December 7.

Recently, Pakistan junior and A teams have suffered a lot due to poor selection of coaches.

Azam Khan, who coached the junior team in the Under-19 Asia Cup, did not even know pacer Arshad Iqbal’s potential as he was sidelined for all but one match.

He played Pakistan’s last match and claimed six wickets. If he had played earlier matches, Pakistan might have challenged for the title.

The general expectation was that with the arrival of the new government and new administration in the PCB, things would move in the right direction — deserving persons would get their due and qualified coaches would be given responsibility to build the future of Pakistan cricket. But again, a Level II coach was preferred over Level IV coaches.

When a PCB official — requesting anonymity — was approached about Ejaz Junior’s qualification, he said: “That is right. He has a Level II certificate and there are a few who even have cleared Level IV courses. But the decision to appoint Ejaz was taken by those who are calling the shots at the PCB headquarters these days,” he said.

One good thing however was the appointment of manager Col (r) Naushad Ali. The former Test cricketer has a vast experience which would be beneficial for the team and players.Muhammad Rizwan has been named the team’s captain.

Pakistan’s first match is against Hong Kong on December 6 followed by games against UAE (Dec 7) and Bangladesh (Dec 9).

Squad: Sahibzada Farhan, Zeeshan Malik, Ali Imran, Hussain Talat, Saad Ali, Khushdil Shah, Saud Shakil, Muhammad Rizwan (captain, wicketkeeper), Ashiq Ali, Muhammad Asghar, Ghulam Mudassar, Sameen Gul, Musa Khan, Muhammad Ilyas, Suleman Shafqat.

Team management: Col (r) Naushad Ali (manager), Ejaz Junior (head coach), Mohammad Masroor (assistant coach), Saqib Faqir, Zubair Ahmed (analyst), Saboor Ahmed (trainer), Imtiaz Khan (physio).