Pakistan’s national head coach and chief selector, Misbah-ul-Haq has the full backing and support of the cricket authorities despite his recent failure as a coach in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Misbah, who was given special permission by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to work as head coach of the Islamabad United, saw his team crash out before the last-four stage for the first time since PSL’s launch in 2016. Islamabad, which is a two time champion, did not make the top-four in the points table to crash out with just seven points from 10 matches and many critics and experts blamed Misbah for the debacle.
But the PCB’s CEO, Wasim Khan, said the Board will still support Misbah. “Since he took over as head coach we have seen steady progress in the national team’s performances in Tests and T20 cricket,” he said.
“We have full confidence in Misbah even now but as is our policy we will sit down and review his one-year performance after the World T20 in Australia in October. We will do a complete postmortem of his one-year progress and then reach a conclusion,” he added.
Khan also made it clear that the Board was not contemplating appointing another coach with Misbah. “We have confidence in him and that is we allowed him to coach the Islamabad franchise as we wanted him to gain some experience as well in this position.” “You must keep in mind while he is coach of the Pakistan team full-time. He only joined the Islamabad franchise few days before the PSL. We wanted it to be a learning experience for him as head coach,” he said.
Misbah took over as head coach-cum-chief selector last September after the PCB released Mickey Arthur and his support staff after the ICC Cricket World Cup. In his tenure, Pakistan has won two out of five Tests at home against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but lost two-nil in Australia.
Khan added that the PCB will ask Misbah if he needs any further support before the tour of Ireland, Holland, England or the Asia Cup and World T20 this year.
“It is up to him what he is planning for the team but I am sure he and the other selectors would take into consideration performance of players in the PSL when they sit down to finalise teams for the Asia Cup and World T20,” he said.
