Geoff Lawson is fired as Pakistan coach
on October 24th, 2008 at 11:39 amGeoff Lawson has been removed as coach of Pakistan with immediate effect. He will be given three months advance salary.
Lawson had a meeting with the PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, earlier this afternoon, at which it was decided that a decision would be given to him tomorrow
“Geoff Lawson has been removed as coach of Pakistan,” PCB spokesman Raza Rashid told Cricinfo. “As per his clause he has been given three months’ salary.”
On October 12, Lawson said he had no plans of stepping down from his post before his two-year term finishes next year. Butt, in the two weeks since he was appointed chairman, had no contact with Lawson until today. On October 18, he had met with Shoaib Malik and the temporary chief selector Saleem Jaffar, but not Lawson.
Two days later, Butt publicly announced that Lawson’s contract would not be renewed after April 2009.
Lawson was appointed by Butt’s predecessor Nasim Ashraf in 2007 on a two-year contract but his impact since then has been sketchy: though Pakistan reached the final of the World Twenty20 in 2007 and won the Kitply Cup this year, they also lost major series at home to South Africa and away to India. They also failed to qualify for the final of the Asia Cup earlier this year.
Lawson had also been the target of intense media criticism almost from the day he arrived in Pakistan.
Given the feisty nature of Ejaz Butt and Lawson I was expecting this to happen, Lawson has been anxious to meet Butt ever since Butt publicly humiliated him, although Butt tried to soften his tone after he was criticized heavily by different sections of the media for his indiscretion, but I was sure Lawson would try to settle score with him as soon as he meets Ejaz Butt.
Butt earlier said that PCB cannot afford to waste three months salary which is US$90,000 by relieving him earlier but failed to realize the consequences of his statement. Firing Lawson might turn out to be good for Pakistan cricket in future, but I am beginning to doubt Butt’s diplomatic and man management skills, a simple task of removing a coach turned into a media circus for no reason. If PCB had to fire him they should have fired him earlier without making too much noise.
Pakistan greats applaud Lawson sacking
by AFP
DateLine: 25th October 2008
Former Pakistan cricket greats Friday applauded the sacking of national coach Geoff Lawson and wasted no time in attacking the former Australian bowler.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked Lawson on Friday, just 15 months after the former paceman took up the position.
“Lawson’s sacking was inevitable,” former captain and master batsman Zaheer Abbas told AFP. “This comes as a popular decision because results were not there, we have had enough of the foreign coaches.”
However, Abbas said Lawson was not totally to blame for Pakistan’s poor results, saying the PCB had exercised bad judgement in hiring him.
“The PCB appointed him coach so the blame must be shared between the two parties but I think after having three foreign coaches we must realise that they do not belong to our culture and do not give it all.”
The 50-year-old Lawson was appointed Pakistan coach in July last year after Pakistan’s first-round defeat in the World Cup in the Caribbean in March.
Calls for his removal intensified when Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka in the final of the T20 four-nation event in Canada earlier this month.
Another former captain, chief selector Aamir Sohail, a persistent critic of Lawson, said the decision was the correct one given his lack of progress with the team. “I would term this as a popular decision,” he said.
“I would not take into account results because they are part and parcel of the game. I would say it is a correct decision because the team was not showing any progress under him.”
Sohail said he favoured former batting great Javed Miandad to take over.
Intikhab Alam, also one of the favourites to replace Lawson, said a clean-up was needed of Pakistan cricket and the Australian had failed to deliver.
“We need a clean-up for positive change in Pakistan cricket and I found Lawson as abrasive and unyielding,” said Alam, a former coach and manager, who also led Pakistan in the 1970s.
“It (Lawson’s sacking) should have happened earlier.”
Former opener Mohsin Khan said Lawson lacked the experience as an international coach and even questioned his success as a player.
“Lawson has no caliber to coach at top level. He was a second string bowler in his playing days (for Australia) when pacemen Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson ruled the world, even Terry Alderman was ahead of him,” said Khan.
I think they wanted to publicly humiliate him, none of the Ex-players liked Lawson for the job he did,he worked as if he was on a paid vacation, he was always playing golf or back home in Australia when not with the national team he never gave any time to A team or the U19 team which was in his contract, he always used to come back a week before a key series at times he came only a few days before a series.
If somebody wants to analyze his performance just look at the bench strength of the current team. Once Shoaib,Yousuf , younis and Kineria retire we have no replacement ready for them,We have lost 2 years. We used to have a system in place of grooming and identifying young talent but I guess the previous administration completely destroyed it.
The current players have also not improved under him, we win because of a few players if they perform we win if they don’t then we loose. I don’t think the team was winning because of Lawson.
People are welcoming this move because people who know cricket they know our team can do much better and people are sick of the poor management and corruption of the last administration.
This is a strange sub-continental phenomenon. I don’t know why adminstrators cannot be like admins and swift and surgical in their actions. As a result, now Lawason will try to make something out of nothing and try and paint everyone in a bad light. maybe through a book, maybe through media utterances or articles once the formalities are completed.
I guess there was never a degree of comfort, but he did have some successes. The general mood in forums appears to be welcoming of this move. How much of it has to do with the change of regime?
Lawson sacking not ‘a change of heart’ – Ijaz Butt
Osman Samiuddin
October 24, 2008
Ijaz Butt had initially said that the PCB couldn’t justify paying out the compensation if they sacked Geoff Lawson before his contract finished © AFP
The PCB chief has denied that the sacking of Geoff Lawson as Pakistan’s coach represents a change of stance from the board’s position earlier, when he stated Lawson would be allowed to stay till the end of his contract but that the board had no “utility” for him. Only yesterday yesterday Ijaz Butt, the board chairman, said he would fully back Lawson till the end of his tenure in August 2009.
“It isn’t a change of heart,” Butt told Cricinfo. “What I said initially was only my personal opinion. That was that Lawson is not a suitable man for the job. I wanted to seek the opinion and advice of others around me in the board before making a decision.”
Butt had initially said the PCB could not justify paying out the compensation if they sacked Lawson before his contract finished. And the final decision rested on whether it was worth paying off a compensation claim or waiting till August 2009 before relieving him. “The question was whether to sack him now or later?,” Butt said. “Detailed discussions were held with board officials and I had a meeting with Lawson too. After that we decided that it wasn’t worth going ahead for another nine or ten months like this.”
Even though the issue appears closed, Lawson’s sacking leaves behind a mess and a slew of charges and counter-charges from both sides. Other reasons have emerged as to why the board changed its mind on his sacking. Equally there remains a feeling now that Lawson will not go quietly.
The new administration, one board official told Cricinfo, felt keenly the need to remove all traces of the Nasim Ashraf regime, a purge they have pursued vigorously since taking over. The other reason is likely to cause considerable friction.
“Lawson had not even attempted to meet the chairman even once since he took over,” said the official. “We felt it reflected poorly on his attitude that he didn’t want to meet the chairman and explain what he wanted and where he wanted the team to go.”
When told that Lawson was upset that the chairman had not made any effort to meet him, the official asked simply: “Why should it be that way round? He is the chairman. The coach should seek him out.” The financial implication of the move, Cricinfo believes, in the form of the three-month compensation to Lawson is in the region of US$50,000, a figure the board felt was ultimately justifiable.
But this figure is likely to be a bone of considerable contention. It is reliably learnt that the letter of termination sent to Lawson, with a cheque for the compensation amount stapled to the back, has been returned. The amount, say sources close to Lawson, is “thousands and thousands of dollars short of what it should be.”
These sources allege that other terms of the termination clause in the contract have not been fulfilled, increasing the likelihood that legal action may be the only option if the two parties fail to resolve the matter otherwise. Lawson is also said to be annoyed mostly with the way his departure has been handled.
“He is upset not so much that he was sacked but that he was treated with an absolute lack of respect and common sense by the PCB,” the source said. “This is unlikely to be the end of the matter.”
You are right Pankaj, he needs to learn to exercise discretion and a little bit of diplomacy, although the decisions he took so far are not wrong, but it seems he is too rough around the edges,and doesn’t know how to handle media.
But one thing is for sure, he is not going to be a flip flop like Nasim Ashraf on discplinary issues.
i think its a good riddance which could have been done in more professional way…
but he may be finding it hard to come to terms with so much media attention he is getting…
butt may be a good man for the job but must learn the virtue of keeping mum…it will only help him and pcb moving fwd in right direction…