Wasim, Waqar disagree with change of Pak team coach
Former Pakistan captains and celebrated fast bowlers, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis have not backed the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to remove Javed Miandad as coach and replace him with Englishman Bob Woolmer.
Both the speed merchants are bamboozled by the PCB’s bizarre sacking of national coach Javed Miandad earlier this week.
"I thought Javed bhai deserved better," Waqar told an Indian newspaper while Wasim felt that signing Woolmer for a four-year period was a ‘funny’ decision.
"In our part of the world, you lose one series and you are gone. The fans, the media and the whole nation react senselessly if we lose to India. The Indians appear to have matured with Sourav at the helm but we are still struggling with the affliction," Waqar lamented.
While Wasim’s view was: "Signing Bob Woolmer for a four-year contract is funny. In Pakistan even the chairman of the cricket board doesn’t know what the future holds for him. How much zing can the ‘laptop coach’ put into the boys is a big question mark."
Both the W’s are again hunting as a pair as they have been hired by ESPN-Star Sport for their Samsung Cricket Show that goes on air this Sunday.
The duo may have swapped the ball with the microphone now, but they are still considered the finest exponents of reverse swing the game has known.
"People think we were rivals that we’d pick up bats to hit each other; there was no such thing. We had a professional rivalry, which meant that if Wasim got five wickets, I’d try to get five wickets too. Ultimately, this benefited the team," Waqar, who was known all around the cricket circles for his tow-crushing yorkers, said. Wasim, globally recognised as the bowler with extraordinary skills of producing variety of deliveries, retired last year shortly after the World Cup in South Africa, while Waqar who was sacked as captain after that competition, announced his retirement recently during the home series against India.
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[Edited on 20-6-2004 by abhs]