Lahore, August 22: It seems that Aaqib Javed has become the first victim of Pakistan’s poor performance in Sri Lanka as the under pressure PCB has sacked former Test player from the post of assistant coach of the team.
Along with Aaqib, team’s assistant manager Mohammad Ahmed has also suffered the axe.
Following there Test and ODI series loss at the hands of Sri Lanka in the recently concluded series, critics have been also calling for the sacking of Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam and manager Yawar Saeed but the PCB decided to retain the duo for the elite eight-nation tournament that gets underway from September 22 in South Africa.
Former first-class cricketer from Karachi Mohtashim Rasheed, who has also served as a fielding coach of the national team in the past will replace Aaqib.
The 40-year-old Mohtashim is a younger brother of former Test player Haroon, who is currently serving as PCB’s Director Game Development.
However, the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt tried to make it clear that Aaqib was not sacked but has been picked for some other assignment.
”May be we have something more important for him,” Butt was qouted as saying by The News.
Butt was also asked about the future of team manager Yawar Saeed, who was criticised by the media over his handling of reports of bookies contacting the Pakistani players in Sri Lanka.
Butt, however, declared that he will not take decisions just to please the media. ”We cannot fire our people just because the media wants us to,” Butt said.
Butt also informed that Yawar had himself asked to be relieved from the post of team manager before the tour of Sri Lanka. He said it has been decided to appoint the experienced Shafqat Rana as the team’s assistant manager for the tour of South Africa. ”We want to see whether he (Shafqat) will be a good choice to be the team’s manager in the future,” said Butt.
—–Agencies