Mohsin slams Waqar’s appointment

The Pakistan Cricket Board has given cricket great Waqar Younis a second shot as coach of the national team.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has given cricket great Waqar Younis a second shot as coach of the national team.

Published May 8, 2014

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Karachi - Former interim coach Mohsin Khan hit out at the Pakistan Cricket Board on Thursday after he was overlooked for the national side's top job.

Khan, 59, had applied for the position of head coach but the PCB on Tuesday handed a two-year contract to fast bowling legend Waqar Younis for a second stint in the role.

The 42-year-old Waqar played 87 Tests and 262 one-day internationals for Pakistan and held the job of national team coach from February 2010 to September 2011.

But he was one of six players fined following a judicial inquiry into match-fixing launched in 1998 that led to lifetime bans for Salim Malik and Ataur Rehman two years later.

Khan, who as temporary coach guided Pakistan to a 3-0 rout of then world number one side England in 2012, accused the Pakistan cricket body of hiring “tainted” players.

“I was one of the deserving candidates but the PCB threw dust in everyone's eyes,” Khan told a press conference, brandishing a newspaper article about judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum's inquiry.

Batsman Malik remains banned from the game while Rehman's ban was subsequently lifted.

Waqar, Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and Akram Raza were all fined.

Khan on Thursday referenced another of Pakistan's cricketing scandals Äthe 2010 spot-fixing affair while the team were touring England with Waqar as coach.

Captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were banned for five years by the International Cricket Council for orchestrating deliberate no-balls in the Lord's Test in return for money.

Khan said the PCB, which is trying to have Aamer's ban reduced before it expires in August 2015, was not moving on from past scandals.

“We are not setting examples by patronising tainted players and after such things who will come and play against us,” he said.

“If the need arises I will go to the court and will also inform the prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) about the matter.”

Waqar takes over the role vacated by Australian coach Dav Whatmore, whose contract expired in March.

Sapa-AFP

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