Pakistani coaches urge PCB not to remove captains too quickly

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been urged not to act hastily and remove the captains of the respective forms by the country’s white ball and red ball coaches, Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie, respectively. The selection has been much debated because of Pakistan’s achievements in several formats.

Following the ODI World Cup 2023, star batsman Babar Azam was stripped of the team’s white-ball captaincy, while Shaheen Afridi was fired following just one poor series. Additionally, Shan Masood was appointed Pakistan’s longest-serving captain after Babar Azam retired from captaincy in Test cricket.

But Pakistan recently lost a home series against Bangladesh under Masood’s direction, and there have been calls for Masood’s dismissal. But a recent source close to the situation disproved the allegations, saying that there had never been any talks about Masood and Babar losing their captaincy. The source was cited by IndiaToday as stating,

“There has been no discussion on changing the captains as the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi has left it up to the two coaches and selectors to decide on the captaincy.”

“And before evaluating Shan and Babar’s leadership qualities, Kirsten and Gillespie are quite clear that they both need to be given a fair trial,” the insider continued.

According to the source, Kirsten and Gillespie both desire consistency among their players and captains. Furthermore, when the board convenes its one-day workshop in Lahore later this month under the name Cricket Connection, the topic of captain changes will not be discussed.

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The workshop is essentially being held because both coaches want the domestic team coaches to have a clear picture of what is required from them to ensure a flow of players who can be considered for selection for the national teams in all formats, the source said. “That workshop is being held to hear the views of all stakeholders, mainly the domestic team coaches, selectors, and contracted players so that the board is able to bridge the gap between domestic cricket and international cricket standards.”