Misbah, Waqar to appear before PCB cricket committee

ISLAMABAD: National team head coach Misbahul Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis are to appear before the cricket committee on Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on the availability of both parties) to share reasons for back-to-back Test series losses in England and New Zealand.

A well-placed source in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told ‘The News’ that the meeting will be an important one in an effort to determine the duo’s role and their failure in the series.

“The PCB Cricket Committee headed by Saleem Yousaf is to meet on Tuesday or Wednesday to determine what resulted in the poor show of the team in both the away Test series Pakistan have played in recent times. Misbah and Waqar have been asked to appear before the committee and share the reasons, experiences and drawbacks of the team in making it a competitive unit,” the source said.

The repeated series losses and poor performance by the team in all departments of the game especially in Tests have forced the PCB to carry out a postmortem.

“Though the cricket committee has the advisory capacity, their recommendations hold great value and importance to shape the future of Pakistan cricket. It is believed that the meeting will be for one day only and will be more confined to the role of coaches and supporting staff in the failures to bring out the best from players. Neither the results are coming at the Test level or there any improvement at this highest level in all departments of the game. Before reaching any conclusion, the committee will discuss the pros and cons before submitting their report to the PCB chairman for his final decision,” the source confirmed.

Misbah’s role is already under fire from all quarters and even he himself had admitted in a post-New Zealand series interview that no department of the team gave a satisfactory performance.

Instead of showing any improvement, Pakistan batting, bowling and fielding has seen a downward trend and looked like reaching its lowest during the second Test against New Zealand that Pakistan lost by an innings margin.

Though changes in the national team coaching staff look imminent, it is not clear yet as to when these changes will materialize.

With the home series against South Africa just around the corner, it looks unlikely that the PCB would go on to shuffle with the coaching staff. However, once the series would be over chances of reshuffling are there.

“The area of concern is not the home but away Test series that saw Pakistan losing third straight. There is absolutely no improvement in performance in any department of the game. The same mistakes are being repeated time and again. Sometimes instead of any improvement, there is clear evidence that things are going downward,” the source said.

One of the members Ali Naqvi (match officials’ representative) will miss the committee meeting as he is busy officiating Pakistan Cup matches underway in Karachi.

Besides the head of the committee Saleem Yousuf, Umar Gul (current cricketers’ representative), Urooj Mumtaz (women cricketers’ representative) and Wasim Akram (former cricketers’ head of the representative) are expected to attend the meeting.