LAHORE: Although Pakistan Cricket Board interim management committee chairman Zaka Ashraf met former Test cricketers on Tuesday, there will be no former player alongside him when he meets Pakistan’s team director Mickey Arthur and captain Babar Azam on Wednesday following the side’s dismal performance at the World Cup.

With chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq having resigned, there is no former Test cricketer on PCB’s payroll — apart from Misbah-ul-Haq — to question Arthur and Babar about the team’s failure in India, where they lost five out of nine matches to exit cricket’s showpiece event in the league stage.

Former Pakistan captain Misbah heads PCB’s national technical committee but is currently appearing as an expert on a World Cup transmission on a private television channel. Former Test spinner Tauseef Ahmed, who was the acting chairman of selectors, was the other option to join Zaka for the meeting but reports on Tuesday suggested that the PCB has dissolved the entire selection committee.

But former captain Younis Khan and former pacers Wahab Riaz and Sohail Tanvir met Zaka on Tuesday as the PCB begins its inquest on Pakistan’s performance at the World Cup and plans for the upcoming Test series against Australia. It is learnt that the trio advised Zaka not to make wholesale changes ahead of the tour of Australia.

With One-day International cricket not high on the agenda for the next years, the former players also instructed the PCB chief to shift focus to red-ball cricket and it is also learnt that Younis might be offered a coaching assignment to groom youngsters in Karachi.

Dawn has also learnt that the PCB will urge Arthur to take up a full-time position with Pakistan by leaving his job as coach of Derbyshire. Arthur has been dividing his time between the Pakistan team, where as director he hand-picked the coaching staff, and the English county side.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2023