PCB has approached former bowling great Waqar Younis once again for the post of bowling coach,Waqar was removed as bowling coach by the same PCB administration last year before the WC 07 and Mushtaq Ahmed was appointed in his place as a result his relations got sour with the Board and he moved to Australia with his family where he is working with Ten sports as a commentator.
Nasim Ashraf met Waqar recently during the Zimbabwe series and has offered Waqar the job again depending upon his availability.There was a visible improvement in Pakistan bowlers under Waqar which was heartening, He transformed Umar Gul into a lethal bowler, he helped Asif and Rana Naveed and since his resignation Pakistan’s bowling has struggled and our bowlers have struggled to bowl out the opposition on too many occasions, Pakistan is still blessed with talent in this department the new crop of fast bowlers is quite impressive, there are quite a few young bowlers who are knocking at the doors of International cricket Anwar Ali, Jamshed Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Abdul Rauf, Mohammed Aamir, Adil Reza and many others, the only thing lacking is the final dimension to their bowling they all are good talented have good run ups, they have speed but almost all of them are quite flat they need to learn the art of swing, they need to learn to bowl toe crushing yorkers right in the block hole. Waqar is an ideal candidate to help these fast bowlers to take them to the next level.I have always been advocating for a fast bowling Academy in Pakistan where former greats should be employed to train the youngsters.Although PCB is operating several academies in Pakistan, the facilities are there and billions were spent to create these facilities but most of these academies remain vacant through out the year the vision was great but as they say that without action a vision is just a dream, PCB needs to be proactive on the issue and should transform these Academies into the best cricket coaching institutions in Asia they have the funds they have the other resources to accomplish this task all they need is bit of passion and determination.I will still advocate that we not only need Waqar but we also need Wasim as most of the youngsters are lefties and there is no body better than Wasim Akram to guide them. PCB made a huge mistake of hiring a second grade Australian fast bowler as the head coach, the guy was never a great bowler in his time and had nothing to offer to our players under him our team has declined, it was an illusion that foreigners are better equipped to coach our players its good to see that PCB officials are now moving in the right direction.
The ball is in Waqar’s court now whether he accepts the offer or not, my suggestion would be let bygones be bygones and take the job.
Waseem,
Like you, I have been advocating for a long time for the PCB to hire Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram as bowling coaches and in the case of Wasim Akram, atleast in an advisory capacity since he has so many other business commitments.
The illusion that the foreigners has some magic wands to turn our boys into super-stars no loger exists, since they are not familiar with our culture, language, customs, eating habits, and above all our peculiar back-biting, leg-pulling and politicking specialities. Only the home-grown veterans could cope with it and control it !!