PCB worried about team’s participation in CL T20

Doesn’t intend to retain Whatmore beyond next year

August 11, 2013 04:16 pm | Updated June 13, 2016 09:28 am IST - Karachi

Dav Whatmore. File Photo

Dav Whatmore. File Photo

The rising tension at the Line of Control (LOC) has left the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) worried about the participation of its team Faisalabad Wolves in the qualifying round of the Champions League Twenty20 to be played in India from September 17.

A senior PCB official said they would start the procedure for obtaining visas for the Faisalabad team after the Eid holidays.

“We have been reading reports about stories in the Indian media regarding the participation of the Faisalabad team in the Champions League and we want to be sure the team has no problems in touring India,” the official told PTI.

“We have collected the passports of the Faisalabad players and we will soon start the process for obtaining visas for them,” the official said.

“We will be in touch with the Indian board and we are hopeful there should be no problems in the team getting visas,” he added.

The official also confirmed that so far the PCB has got no advice from the government on sending the team to India.

“Our government’s policy has been clear on sporting ties with India,” he noted.

Doesn’t intend to retain Whatmore

Pakistan will have a new head coach for the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20 Championships in Bangladesh next year as the PCB has no intentions of renewing Australian Dav Whatmore’s two-year contract when it expires in March 2014.

“At the moment the present PCB management has decided to stay with Whatmore and allow him to complete his two-year contract,” a source in the board told PTI .

But he confirmed that the Board was far from happy with the results produced so far by Whatmore since he took over in March 2012 and also over a number of other issues.

“Basically, the PCB does not want to pay any extra compensation to Whatmore which it will have to do if it terminates his contract before March 2014,” the source said.

“With two back to back series against South Africa and Sri Lanka coming up in the UAE the PCB also does not feel it is the right time to make changes in the team’s coaching staff,” the source said.

But he confirmed that the board was not happy with Whatmore and had brought in a former Test captain Moin Khan as manager for the Zimbabwe tour to balance things in the team management.

Interestingly, Whatmore recently preferred to move out of the National Cricket Academy living area to a new residence in Gulberg in Lahore for the rent which is being paid by the PCB.

“Although Whatmore as per his contract was entitled to have an independent bungalow, there was a feeling in the board that for security reasons he would have been better off staying in the NCA but he insisted on shifting residence,” the source said.

Previously both the former foreign coaches of the Pakistan team, Bob Woolmer and Geoff Lawson preferred to stay at the NCA instead of independent residences.

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