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Haroon Rashid to take over as Pakistan national coach

The Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday dropped Mushtaq Mohammad, and will replace him with Haroon Rashid as coach of the senior national team.

Rashid, veteran of 23 Tests and 12 ODIs, was on the verge of flying to England with the Pakistan A team as its manager when the announcement was made. He will now debut in his new role as coach of the senior side in mid-July, when Pakistan takes part in the Asia Cup quadrangular competition to be held in Sri Lanka.

The contract, which involves a pay package of Rs 40,000 per month plus an unspecified share of the sponsorship money, will run for three years, but is renewable each year.

PCB chief executive Majid Khan pointed out that Rashid has the experience of managing the junior teams, and is expected to prove an ideal successor to Mushtaq Mohammad. Under Mushtaq, Pakistan competed successfully in Australia, Canada and Sharjah, made it to the finals of a quadrangular in Kenya, as also in Sharjah and India. The team also won a Test series against Zimbabwe, and held New Zealand and Sri Lanka to drawn series.

"It is a big challenge," Rashid said, "because Pakistan has a very strenuous season ahead. It will also be a new experience for me as I have only been involved with the junior side thus far."

Upfront on Rashid's immediate agenda is a ten day coaching camp based on match play situations. "Our openers will take strike, our captain will set the field for the first 15 overs, our opening bowlers will bowl as seriously as they would in a match... we will, on the field of play, attempt to recreate real match situations, as part of the build up for the Asia Cup."

However, the more immediate task will be to meet with the national selectors when they get down to picking the squad for the Asia Cup.

Which, again, brings up the question of Aamir Sohail. The PCB appears to have figured out a way of "making Sohail eligible for selection", and yet effectively keeping him out of the side.

Thus, the selectors have apparently been told that when weighing Sohail's claims for a berth in the national side, close attention should be paid to his track record over the past year.

In that time, Sohail has played over 20 ODIs and notched up just four 50s - a record that appears to give the selectors enough justification for keeping him out of the side.

Chairman of the Pakistan selection committee Salim Altaf said in Lahore that he has had preliminary talks with coach-designate Haroon Rashid, but that the selectors would actually sit down to their task only early next week.

Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Mohammad will continue to be unavailable for national duty, as they are busy with their county commitments. However, it is possible that pace bowler Azhar Mahmood will be recalled from England and asked to take his place in the national lineup.