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Whatmore signs two-year deal as Pakistan coach

Dav Whatmore and Julien Fountain at a press conference
in Lahore on March 4, 2012

Dav Whatmore and Julien Fountain have signed two-year contracts with the PCB as Pakistan coach and Pakistan fielding coach respectively. Whatmore and Fountain had arrived in Lahore on March 2 but there had not been an official announcement regarding their appointment. On March 4, Zaka Ashraf, the PCB chairman, and Intikhab Alam, the director of international cricket, formally announced that Whatmore and Fountain had been contracted by the board.

"I wanted the best coaches in the world for my team and I gave the task of finding them to the committee appointed to select a coach," Ashraf said at a press conference in Lahore. "They analysed all the candidates and they have found the best people for our team. I am happy to have Dav Whatmore and Julien Fountain as a part of our setup and hope they can ensure Pakistan always puts up fighting performances, whether we lose or win."

Whatmore, who has previously coached Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, has been linked with the Pakistan coaching job since December last year. Waqar Younis had quit the job after the tour of Zimbabwe in September and Pakistan were due to announce a coach after their tour of Bangladesh. However, the interim coach, Mohsin Khan, continued in the role for the England series. Meanwhile, Whatmore met with the PCB in January and has now been officially given the role of head coach. Fountain, who has been fielding coach of Bangladesh and worked with the PCB before, also met the PCB in January and travelled with Whatmore to Lahore on March 2.

Whatmore said his goal was to bring some consistency to the team and do away with the poor performances. "We want to be consistent. We don't want peaks and troughs," Whatmore said. "We want the team to be at a good level for a long period. When we're brilliant there will be peaks, but we want to still perform and win games when we're not brilliant. We want to eliminate the bad performances. But you can't do that by focusing on the result. You have to focus on the process."

The appointments come after Pakistan followed up their whitewash of England in the Test series in the UAE by losing 0-4 in the ODIs and 1-2 in the Twenty20 internationals. Whatmore said the performances had been disappointing but said he was more concerned with the future. "It was disappointing after the fantastic effort in the Tests. Everyone needs consistency and to at least put up a fight in games, even if you lose them. But I'm not looking too much at the past. We want to focus on what's coming up keeping in mind what's happened before."

Whatmore's first assignment is the Asia Cup, a one-day tournament also featuring India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He said Pakistan would need to select different teams for all three formats. Whatmore also made clear that though the eventual goal was to take Pakistan to the top of the rankings in all formats, it would take time.

"At the minute the team is ranked six [Pakistan are fifth in Tests and sixth in ODIs in the ICC rankings], so it will take time to get them to the top. To achieve anything you have to take small steps. We are focussed on those steps now rather than the ultimate goal.

Whatmore and Fountain have visited the National Cricket Academy in Lahore where former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz is working with the national team's bowlers.

Whatmore is set to cover the batting department for Pakistan while Fountain will concentrate on fielding. Aaqib Javed, the former Pakistan fast bowler, had been lined up to form the trio but he opted to become coach of UAE. The PCB has said it will advertise to fill the position of bowling coach but will not rush into a decision.

BCB 'satisfied' with Pakistan security arrangements

Officials from Bangladesh and Pakistan are escorted
 onto the field at the Gaddafi Stadium

The Bangladesh delegation sent to inspect security arrangements in Pakistan is "satisfied" with the infrastructure and BCB president Mustafa Kamal has said he is keen to send the Bangladesh team on a tour of Pakistan. Now, both boards are seeking consent from the ICC to go ahead with the tour that is proposed for April this year.

"After seeing all the security arrangements all of us agree and are satisfied that the security infrastructure is in place," Kamal said at a press conference in Lahore. "Now it is my responsibility to convince my government to allow the tour and also request the ICC to approve the tour. Since the ICC governs and regulates the game we have to take this issue to them and must bring it to their notice that we want to send a team."

A nine-member delegation, headed by Kamal, had been sent on a two-day visit to Pakistan to observe a demonstration of the security plan for the proposed series. Kamal had said he was positive about the tour after a meeting in which the security plan was explained on Saturday. On Sunday, there was a full demonstration in Lahore, which involved more than 500 policemen being deployed between the Pearl Continental hotel, where the players will stay, to the Gaddafi Stadium. The Bangladeshi delegates, along with members of the PCB, including chairman Zaka Ashraf, were transported from the Pearl Continental hotel to the ground by a bus that was surrounded by two police jeeps, a police truck and several motorbikes.

There were two helicopters patrolling the sky at the stadium, and a mock evacuation via helicopter was also carried out to demonstrate how players or spectators could be rescued in case of an incident. The officials observed the same security protocol that would be in place should an international match be hosted by the stadium.

"We are here for three objectives," Kamal said, "One is to see the infrastructure, second to get information about the security plan and third to see the capability to execute the plan, and definitely all of us agree that all the segments were in place."

There has been no international cricket in Pakistan since the Sri Lankan team bus was attacked by terrorists on March 3, 2009, following which Pakistan were also stripped of the matches they were to host during the 2011 World Cup. Kamal said the ICC might have a different outlook this time since they were being directly approached by another member board.

"We will be approaching the ICC and telling them that we are keen to come to Pakistan. Here lies the difference: earlier nobody approached them, this time we will be approaching them in a positive way. We must get them engaged; we must get their consent. It is the beginning of the process [to return international cricket to Pakistan], which was stalled for the past couple of years."

	There were two choppers patrolling the sky at the Gaddafi Stadium.

The ICC has not sent any representatives to Pakistan for a security assessment of the proposed tour yet but will do so before it agrees to send its match officials for any games in Pakistan.

Zaka Ashraf said he was optimistic that the ICC would give their consent since both countries' boards had agreed to the tour. "I have personally met with the ICC chief; they want to see international cricket return to Pakistan, and were supportive, but the only concern was security," Ashraf said. "Now that we have the Bangladesh security team here and they are satisfied, the ICC's role is important."

There are two itineraries proposed for the tour, one of which includes a three-match ODI series, and the other a series of two ODIs and one Twenty20 international, to be completed in one week in April. Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi's National Stadium are the venues expected to host the matches.

Letter to Whatmore

Salaam aleikum, Davenell bhai

It has been many years since we first toured with Australia together, back in 1979, when you played so well against India. The wheel has turned almost full circle, just lacking the final shift across the line so artfully drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe.

The news of your (eventual) appointment has reached the shores of your former adopted homeland, and I must say I am quite pleased that your name plate will adorn the door of Room 3 at the National Cricket Academy admin block in Lahore. I note that contract negotiations were convoluted, complex and ambivalent, so all seems normal at the PCB.

Hopefully they have cleaned out my cupboards and those back issues of Optometry News, Playboy for Seniors and Golf Digest have been consigned to the garbage, or at least sent over to the player accommodation.

I am sure the PCB liaison man, Zakir Khan, will have let you know about the security arrangements. I recall clearly his words to me when I discussed my possible engagement as the national coach after the untimely demise of Bob Woolmer: "Yes, Geoff, there will be plenty of security, you just won't see them." Comforting indeed, but my biggest fears when living in Lahore did not include IEDs or rogue terror cells but anopheles mosquitoes and dengue fever (which I contracted leaving Pakistan in 1982 and wouldn't wish on my worst enemy).

I hope you get out to the regional centres like Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Sheikhupura to see some of the local cricket. Some of the grounds are very poor and some very good. I would rate the stadium in Multan as one of the best in Asia - it's certainly a far cry from the old ground on top of the hill in the middle of town where we played in 1980 and 1982.

You will find that, contrary to widespread belief outside of Pakistan, there are some quicker pitches that certainly favour seam bowling. If you look at the figures for the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy it is usually the pace bowlers who dominate. Occasionally there will be a slow turner; the National Stadium, Karachi, can be either good to bat on or a real haven for the slow bowlers. Generally, up north they produce the stronger, bigger physiques and therefore the faster bowlers.

I was pleasantly surprised by the standards of the better QEA teams. I thought the competition had quality and was robust. It is good when national team-mates go hard at each other in first-class games.

Make sure you have some input into the Pentangular Shield teams' selection. That competition, between five provinces, is the equivalent of the Sheffield Shield. After the 24 or so first-class and corporate teams play their tournament, the national selectors pick five teams to represent Punjab, Sind (the two big boys, whose players come mostly from Lahore and Karachi), North West Frontier Province (now called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Baluchistan, and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which include Rawalpindi and Islamabad. They only play each other once in four-day games, but those matches are hard-fought and of an excellent standard.

The guys who do well here are just about ready for the next step, and you never know in Pakistan when some young genius will pop out of the woodwork. Like Mohammad Amir, who has just arrived back in Lahore from detention in England. You should take the 20-minute drive over to Defence Housing and have a chat with him sooner rather than later, to see what his mental state is. I reckon he would benefit from getting straight back into cricket of some kind, if only at club level.

Also, Dav, be careful in the traffic. I know the roads are mostly crammed with bicycles, motorbikes, rickshaws and camel carts that move like treacle through a sieve, but those six lanes leading onto the Liberty Market roundabout remind me of Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell sans beard and driving license. Your experience in Colombo traffic will stand you in good stead, but try to get a driver who speaks passable English and isn't a former auto-rickshaw operator. I wouldn't bother getting behind the wheel myself, based on my driving experiences. I was perfect - three drives, three accidents. None were my fault, of course, as I was using the imperial driving code - which among many details mentions something about driving on the left-hand side of the road where possible - not the South Asian one, where the horn is compulsory and "give way" loosely translates as "go as fast as possible to beat the next guy into the gap that would maybe fit a dinky toy while avoiding the over-laden donkey dray".

I must confess that when I moved into Room 3 at the NCA, most of Bob's stuff, from cricket books to DVDs, rindless-marmalade jars and tea caddy were still there. I did find it a little disconcerting that the personal items of the much loved and respected coach had not been packed and despatched. I'm sure Ijaz Butt will have cleaned out my detritus immediately, given his statements regarding my usefulness to Pakistan cricket after his brother-in-law anointed him chairman of the board after the 2008 general election. Sad days for all.

	When in doubt, ask Misbah who should be in the team and he will give you players who aren't someone's second cousin's brother's uncle but rather are the most skilled for that position

With your vast experience in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, the language barrier should be at ankle height. Most of the guys speak English, falling into a range from "better than Australians" to "you get the drift". Cricket is the universal language, in any case. An outswinger is still gripped the same and a cover drive still gets hit through cover. Urdu and Hindi have many common words, although if they get to speaking Punjabi or Pashto, call for the gardener to translate. He used to run a video shop in the SWAT Valley until the Taliban arrived and issued an edict that no one should have fun.

A huge bonus for you will be that Misbah-ul Haq has taken over the captaincy. He is a bright, well-educated man, who understands the game exceptionally well. When in doubt, ask Misbah who should be in the team and he will give you players who aren't someone's second cousin's brother's uncle but rather are the most skilled for that position. He is a winner and plays no favourites, and will be an excellent sounding board for whatever strategy you feel will work best with the team. He sets a perfect example in work ethic and discipline, and it does make a difference when the senior players are doing all the right things, especially in their culture of age and respect going hand in hand.

Dav, I must issue a note of warning about dealing with the media in Pakistan, especially if you play against India and finish second - although that might never happen in the near future, given the political machinations at the highest level. Speak to Immie on this point: the Lion of Lahore may be the only person in Pakistan who can make it happen; now if only we could get Sachin to stand for the Lok Sabha, we could create cricket detente.

If the local journos want to be disrespectful and force their pre-conceived agendas on you, go right ahead and let them, unless you want several thousand views on Youtube. My son has installed the clip of me walking out of a press conference as my screen saver, so if I want to remind myself of how not to suck up to reporters I just hit Control F6 and amuse myself for three minutes.

But have no fear, Dav, of the man in the street. The press may have their private or provincial agendas, but I found the common man to be most friendly and hospitable. Even when we lost the occasional match, their approach to me was civil and respectful. Not an effigy in sight, burning or whole. They appreciated that a foreigner was in their country to help, to do his best and, win, lose or draw, to show respect for the nation and the culture.

I learned a bit of the lingo and stayed off the booze. I recommend doing at least one of those.

Stay away from politicians, public meetings, police stations or military establishments. If taking the team to the Army School of Physical Training in Abbottabad, stay clear of buildings with just a few too many antennae sticking out of the chimney, and keep your head down if you hear helicopters approaching.

That's about it, mate. These guys can play some wonderful cricket, and I'm sure they will listen and learn and benefit from your enormous knowledge of the game. I look forward to visiting you at Gaddafi Stadium when Australia return to play a Test there. When that happens, cricket really will be the winner.

All the best

Mustafa Kamal positive about Bangladesh touring Pakistan

Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik (centre) with BCB president
 Mustafa Kamal (left) and PCB chairman Zaka Ashra

Mustafa Kamal, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president, has said he will work with PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf at the ICC level to return international cricket to Pakistan. Kamal was speaking in Islamabad, after meeting with Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik to discuss security issues regarding Bangladesh's proposed tour in April.

Although no formal decision was taken at the meeting, the delegation from Bangladesh was briefed about the security arrangements the Pakistan government would make and Kamal was optimistic about the limited-overs series going ahead. The delegation will inspect facilities in Lahore and Karachi before returning home on March 5 to submit a report to the Bangladesh government.

"Now I am here to make a commitment that both Mr Zaka and I will work together to make things right at the ICC level," Kamal said. "We have our endeavour and always will work hand in hand to convince our other colleagues in the ICC to bring back cricket to Pakistan at the earliest.

"I am here with a positive frame of mind and I want us to be in a position to convince our ICC board members, so that they also agree to play in Pakistan as early as possible."

The ICC was not part of the meeting between the BCB and the Pakistan ministry and they will carry out a separate assessment of the security situation if the tour is confirmed. Malik assured the Bangladesh delegation of the security their team would be given, saying the government had taken "total political ownership" of the series.

"I have given full assurances regarding security, they will visit two stadiums, let them have a look at all those arrangements which we are proposing," Malik said in Islamabad. "I assured him [Kamal] from my side, on behalf of the government, that we have taken total political ownership of this match.

"I've also given him the prerogative that if he wants to add or subtract [to security arrangements] we will do it. We will show our capabilities, and of course then it comes to the planning, the road map, security parameters as to how we're going to take care of things. So all those things at international standard, they all will be met."

Two members from the Bangladesh delegation went to Karachi to witness the security arrangements that would be put in place should a match go ahead at the National Stadium there.

There are two itineraries proposed at present: one is a three-ODI series and the other is two ODIs and one Twenty20 international to be completed in a week in April. Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi's National Stadium are the potential venues.

"This is the first step, and I am sure they will be fully satisfied with the security plan being given by the ministry and by the provinces of Sindh and Punjab," Ashraf said, "And when they go back home, they go back home fully satisfied."

It is three years to the day that terrorists with guns attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, and several players and officials were wounded. Since then, no international side apart from Afghanistan, has toured Pakistan. They were removed as co-hosts of the 2011 World Cup and have been playing their home bilateral series at offshore venues such as England, New Zealand and the UAE.

Nasir Jamshed, Sarfraz Ahmed in Pakistan squad

Pakistan have dropped Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat and Adnan Akmal from the squad that lost the ODIs 4-0 to England, and picked opener Nasir Jamshed and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed for the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. Fast bowler Junaid Khan was not considered for selection because he was sidelined with a knee injury.

Pakistan squad for Asia Cup Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Hammad Azam, Asad Shafiq, Shahid Afridi, Azhar Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, Wahab Riaz. In: Nasir Jamshed, Sarfraz Ahmed. Out: Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat, Adnan Akmal. Reserves: Ahmed Shehzad, Rahat Ali, Bilawal Bhatti, Afaq Rahim.

The 15-man squad was the first selection by thecommittee headed by Iqbal Qasim, who replaced Mohammad Ilyas as chief selector. The selectors had met with Pakistan's new coach Dav Whatmore, whose first assignment will be the Asia Cup, in Lahore on March 2 to pick the team.

"We have selected the best possible squad for the Asia Cup in the shortest time available, and since Malik was an additional member for the England series we couldn't find a place for him in the 15-man squad," Qasim said. "We did consult Misbah and he agreed to the selection.

"We had to maintain the balance keeping view of the pitches in Bangladesh. But now we have to compete with quality teams, especially Sri Lanka, who returned to form, and India will obviously come hard after the Australia tour."

Jamshed has played 12 ODIs for Pakistan, the last of which was in August 2009. He has just been in Bangladesh, where he played for the Chittagong Kings in the BPL. Before going to Bangladesh, Jamshed had scored 320 runs at 53.33 in four matches for Punjab in the Pentangular Cup, a first-class competition in Pakistan. Sarfraz replaced Adnan Akmal as the specialist wicketkeeper in the squad; he played for Pakistan as recently as December 2011, during the tour of Bangladesh.

"Jamshed earned his recall only after he has done well in the domestic circuit as an opener," Qasim said. "There was an added pressure on Umar [Akmal] and this is why he might not giving his best with the bat. He always was selected as a designated batsman, we wanted a batting wicketkeeper who can bat effectively in ODIs to score quick runs."

Qasim said that the Asia Cup would be Sarfraz's last chance to seal his place in the Pakistan team. "It's our inability that we don't have a batting wicketkeeper but this would be the last chance for [Sarfraz Ahmed] to step up and do well with the bat. Otherwise, after the series, we are starting the talent hunt for an all-round wicketkeeper."

While Junaid's absence from the squad may have been forced, the other three - Malik, Farhat and Adnan Akmal did not perform impressively against England in the UAE. Malik, who was not in Pakistan's original ODI and Twenty20 squads against England but included later at the request of the captain Misbah-ul-Haq, averaged 15 in two one-dayers. Farhat scored 66 runs in three matches, while Adnan Akmal played only two ODIs; his brother Umar kept in the matches that Adnan was not selected for.

Iqbal Qasim named Pakistan chief selector

Mohammad Ilyas has stepped down as Pakistan's interim chief selector, while Iqbal Qasim has been appointed to the post of chief selector.

The decision to appoint Qasim, a former chief selector himself, had been taken after Ilyas put forward his resignation today on the sidelines of the governing board meeting in Islamabad. The board, however, had decided to bring back Qasim and former selector Saleem Jaffar in the five-man committee. Azhar Khan, Asif Baloch and Farukh Zaman were retained in the committee.

"We wanted to make some changes regarding the selection committee and Iqbal Qasim is the new chairman of the selection committee," Ashraf said after the meeting. "Pakistan is going to the Asia Cup (in Bangladesh) and I hope the selectors will continue the merit policy."

Qasim, presently the sports head of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), had resigned from his first stint as chief selector following a poor tour of Australia in 2009-10. The team was whitewashed in both the Test and ODI series and Shahid Afridi was banned for biting the ball. Qasim was a member of the selection committee until the 2007 World Cup and had been appointed in an honorary post, continuing as a senior employee with NBP.

"During the two-and-a-half month tour (in Australia), we lost every single match we played but I pray that such a situation does not arise again," Qasim said. "There's a short time available for the Asia Cup, our team's effort will be to select the best possible team. I can assure you that the team will be balanced."

Jaffar was also a member of the selection committee from 2007 till July 2010, when his contract was not renewed due to a rift in selection. Currently the head coach of Karachi City Cricket Association, he will now work as a full-time selector.

Ilyas' resignation was expected because the PCB had already been making plans to form a new selection committee. Ashraf, when taking over as chairman, refrained from major changes in order to maintain the team's winning momentum. Ilyas was part of the selection committee throughout the Ijaz Butt administration in different positions, and had served as the interim chief selector since Mohsin Khan was appointed as interim head coach.

Ilyas said he gave up his role owing to his personal commitments and the extensive fieldwork required to be a national selector. "I am quite busy at the moment," Ilyas said. "I've been there for three and a half years so it's time for new people to take over. I have enjoyed working with everybody."

Ilyas was criticised for selecting his son-in-law Imran Farhat as an opening batsman in one-day internationals particularly by fans who felt that Farhat wasn't deserving of a spot in the national team. However, Qasim has assured that teams henceforth will be picked on merit.

"Imran Farhat is just like any other player," Qasim said. "Every player will be evaluated and whatever team is picked it will be on merit."

Qasim also acknowledged Ilyas' work: "I give my full support to Ilyas for his wonderful contribution. He did his work with dedication and honesty. The board appreciates his services with compliments and he was with us as an important member of the team."

Interestingly, Mohsin was supposed to return to the selection panel, but his future with the PCB is still uncertain, with the likelihood of him being replaced by another head coach in the near future. However, Ashraf told ESPNcricinfo recently that "Mohsin's future is associated with the PCB".

All major regions in Pakistan have been represented; Zaman looks after the NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) region, Baloch after Balochistan and the rest over Sindh and Punjab.