PCB hires Saqlain, Bradburn for HPC

LAHORE: Grant Bradburn and doosra inventor Saqlain Mushtaq were given highest roles in the Pakistan Cricket Board set up on Thursday.

The PCB announced the appointments of Grant Bradburn as Head of High Performance Coaching and Saqlain Mushtaq as Head of International Player Development as part of the prestigious High Performance Centre’s (HPC) restructuring. The restructuring is aimed at providing a clear pathway to the young and aspiring player support personnel and players within the game.

In addition to the two former Test cricketers, LUMS graduate Asser Malik, who has a wide-ranging experience with various multi-national companies, has been confirmed as High Performance Operations Manager.

Bradburn is presently the fielding coach of the Pakistan men’s national team, a role he took in September 2018 following a successful coaching stint with the Scotland men’s national cricket team.

Bradburn, a Level III coach, will be responsible for raising the overall standard of player support personnel across all the high performance centres of the country.

Saqlain played international cricket between 1995 and 2004 and will be responsible for identifying, developing and preparing players so that they could go on to become world-class cricketers.

Saqlain, known for introducing the Doosra, in his first full year (1996) with the Pakistan national men’s cricket team at the age of 18 established a record for the most ODI wickets in a calendar year (65).

He then did even better the following year, setting a mark (69) that still stands. His impact was so great that he became the fastest bowler in history in terms of time (one year and 225 days) to reach the landmark of 100 ODI wickets, and to this day, no one else has got there in less than two years.

Saqlain, also a Level III coach, has previously worked as a spin bowling coach with Bangladesh, West Indies and England men’s cricket teams.