Miandad opposes Waqar’s appointment as Pak coach

The Pakistan Cricket Board seems divided on making Waqar Younis the national team’s coach and Director General Javed Miandad has opposed the former pacer’s appointment, citing his involvement in the match-fixing scandal.

Miandad said he is surprised that the PCB had not heeded to the Justice Malik Qayyum’s report on match fixing issued 10 years ago and was giving responsibilities to those players who were fined on the basis of the report.

“Everyone knows that Justice Qayyum had recommended to the board to not give positions of responsibility to Waqar, Aaqib Javed, Wasim Akram etc in Pakistan cricket but this is what is happening,” he said.

“I don’t see the logic behind offering Waqar the coaching position because he was with the team in Australia as bowling and fielding coach and didn’t do anything notable. Plus he has not prior experience of being a full-time coach,” Miandad said. Miandad said he was also surprised at the plans to have a foreign consultant with the team.

“I have offered my services to the board to work as batting consultant and I am an employee of the board which is constantly saying it is facing financial problems so why waste money on a foreign consultant?” he asked.

The former Pakistan skipper was also not happy with the 30 probables announced for the Twenty20 World Cup and pointed out that it was useless to give chances to players like Imran Farhat or Imran Nazir.

I agree with Miandad here, Waqar is unproven as a coach and as I said earlier he comes with alot of fighting, during his stint as a captain and player there were reports of him being involved in match fixing, while that is not proven, there is no smoke without fire. Second what is proven is that there were factions within the team both he and Wasim were continuously working to undermine each other, playing for country came second.

The only thing going in Waqar's favor is his first stint as coach where he did have an effect on Rana, Sami and Gul's bowling but apart from that there is nothing much to write home about. He was with the team in Australia and we saw absolutely no improvement in Gul's bowling form which just continued to decline throughout.

If Qyum's report is what Javed is basing his argument...then where the heck was he when Mushtaq was appointed as assistant coach or Aqib was appointed as coach.

Ad hoc board, ad hoc and absurd decisions by INCOMPETENT people....All lotaism and no brains :-(

In other words the PCB is a reflection of the rest of the PAK society:-(

@Feather

This is nothing personal against Waqar. I hope he has learned from past mistakes. We should have room for forgiveness, but the seriousness of the fault must be accounted for also. Match fixing is a VERY serious allegation and should be dealt with accordingly. If you turn the blind eye then we will pay for it since other players might be attracted by the huge sums involved in this kind of dirty business.

"That is huge part of the Pakistani culture in my opinion."

There is a reason for that! If we continue to have inconsistent policies, ad hocism etc. then we will continue to have all sorts of problems. The team will off course be affected by the off the field brawls. We need to bring the game back and that means the players should concentrate about what they are good at i.e. playing cricket. Bring in a professional and competent leadership in PCB and you will see wonders in a short span of time. The leadership need to know about cricket, good administration skills, man management etc. and need not to be top class players. Not all top class players are good at man management and to lead!

I am not saying we cannot forgive. What I want is a more consistent line in dealing with the players. All players should be subject to the same rules! They should know where the limits are and that can only be done with a proper management.

Btw: I have not read all your posts, but obviously we agree on the point about a proper cricket management.

Waqar's long term involvement with the team will be great experience for the pacemen. Miandad is worried for bhanja and probably has some old grudges with Waqar when he was ousted in 1993.

In 2000, former Pakistan captain Salim Malik and medium pacer Ata-ur Rehman were found guilty of match-fixing by Justice Malik Qayyum.
They were both banned for life following a year long investigation into the allegations.

The inquiry was launched in response to charges of betting and match-fixing against several of Pakistan's top cricketers, including former captains Wasim Akram and Salim Malik, spinners Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed, and middle order batsman Ijaz Ahmed.

This is not the first time that a Pakistani cricketer has been suspected of match-fixing.

Last October, National Assembly's sports committee chief Jamshed Dast accused the Pakistan team of deliberately losing to Australia to knock old rivals India out of the Champions Trophy in South Africa. However, the committee later cleared the team of any wrongdoings.

Although Akmal has been included in the list of 30 probables for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Championship, which is scheduled to be held in the Caribbean in May, he may be axed from the final squad if he fails to clear his name.

Justice Malik Qayyum himself is one of the most corrupt judges in the history of Pakistan. Famous for handling Musharraf affairs, the army chief who broke all laws of the country, and the constitution of Pakistan.

The report itself didnt make any sense as some of the players (including Waqar, Wasim, Inzy) were fined and not banned. If they were guilty they should have been banned, if they were not they shouldnt have been fined.

I don't know about grudges, but seeing as how our batting is the weak link, why not get a batsman? Waqar is fine as a bowling consultant, but I don't think our bowling is a problem.

I can understand Miandad's point of view, he doesn't Waqar has a head coach due to the lack of experience, however I'd take Waqar over Miandad anyday. Miandad shouldn't be anywhere near the national team, he brings too much politics.

I like Waqar as Coach and I can't wait for Pak fast bowlers back to their best under him. Cutting out no balls, more reverse swing and better fitness

i am not really all happy and excited about waqar being our HC, but will take it gladly as an upgrade on Inti, as the saying goes, "cheel ke monh se aik niwala bhi kheench loh toh bari baat hai" so anything that sounds like a +ive from PCB take it with open arms for you dont know what they might have up their sleeves to shock you.

+ i hope kaash ke ik pinjra/cage hota for all our ex-players like sarfaraz nawaz/miandad etc, where we could lock them far far away from our cricketing setup.

Well i am also against Waqar's appointment as HEAD Coach. Waqar has absolutely no coaching experience plus he can be a bowling coach at best but our team's main issues is BATTING and thats where we need a good batting coach plus a tactician who can make strategies from match to match and ask the captain and the team to implement it.

Waqar doesn't comes across as a very shrewd or tactically brilliant so i have little hope from him. I don't think its his fault, its the PCB who is offering wrong people the wrong jobs. Miandad is another example, what the hell is he doing while being the so called DG of PCB!!!

I figure it's just like throwing shit on the wall and seeing what sticks... then taking credit if it works, or blaming the coach they hired if doesn't, agreed batting and fielding is where we need the most improvement seeing how so many catches are still dropped, even the batting can turn an easy match into a challenge... and we've known this for quite sometime...

i think pakistan should have a batting coach as the head coach rather than someone like waqar who is a bowler, the pakistani tean is lacking in batting so need some strong direction from that area and with a head coach being a batsmen it will help, waqar should keep his job as a bowling coach, Wasim is also someone who could do a good job for us as a bowling coach but nowadays he seems more interested in coaching indians

I seriously don't know why our fans even pay attention to his rants anymore. He's had more than a fair number of chances himself, and didn't come up with anything extraordinary. It's in our culture; aitraazat and ilzaamat.