ISLAMABAD – Former head coach Waqar Younis has urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to utilize Wasim Akram to a greater extent as his suggestions and ideas could help Pakistani cricket in moving forward.
Waqar said that former cricketers should be advising the Chairman of the Board. “I have stated this fact in my recommendation reports to the Pakistan Cricket Board,” he explained.
“You need a cricket committee who make the cricketing decisions. What’s happening is that all of the decisions are coming from the Board of Governors and there are no cricketers among them,” he told Pakpassion.net.
“We need to give responsibility to cricketers such as Wasim Akram, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Ramiz Raja. Wasim needs to be utilized more by the Board for suggestions and ideas and to help Pakistan cricket move forward,” he said.
Waqar said the country needed to improve its organization of domestic cricket. “Look at the example of South Africa which was out of international cricket for many years but I remember going to South Africa for the first time in 1994 and when playing against them I felt like this nation had never been away from international cricket. This was due to their strong domestic cricket structure that produced excellent cricketers,” he said.
He lamented that the country’s stadiums were empty and the fact that only major twenty-over tournaments were able to attract crowds. “Our cricket committee needs to have eight to ten top quality cricketers as their ideas can be beneficial to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Pakistan cricket’s future.”
“I gave PCB the names of people who should be on the cricket committee, but instead they have brought in Iqbal Qasim and Nadeem Khan who played cricket so long ago and are not really in touch with modern day cricket. I have nothing against these people but we need to move forward,” he said.
Speaking about the new head coach Mickey Arthur, Waqar advised Mickey to be patient and honest. “He is an experienced coach and he has coached around the world and that will be beneficial. I think the Pakistan team will blossom under Mickey.”
“Things are moving forward, Mudassar Nazar is there now and he will do a good job with the academies and we have to be patient. Everyone has to give Mickey some time and not expect too much, too soon,” he said.
