Waqar Younis offered Pakistan coaching job

Waqar Younis has been offered a contract by the PCB to coach the Pakistan side until December 2011. The former fast bowler, in Sydney currently, received the contract yesterday and is expected to sign it and send it back over the next few days, in the process becoming Pakistan's fourth coach in three years.

The PCB finally confirmed that they had made an offer to Waqar to coach the side. "I would like Waqar to join the Pakistan team," Ijaz Butt, chairman PCB, said at a press conference. "We are awaiting a reply as we have offered him to take over as our head coach."

It is believed that Waqar has some concerns over the contract that has been sent and will raise a couple of points with the board. There is likely to be further negotiation over the financial package and Waqar is also keen to have a clause which allows him to take stock of his role after the 2011 World Cup, a buffer of sorts against what is a generally a period of considerable administrative turbulence.

Some of the targets set in the contract, about what the team needs to be achieving in that timescale might also be re-calibrated. None of them, however, are thought to be significant enough to derail his desire to be coach.

Waqar will likely be working alongside former team-mate Ijaz Ahmed, who will be, according to Butt, the fielding coach for the side. Ijaz was in charge of the recent Under-19 Pakistan side that finished runners-up at the World Cup in New Zealand; as one of the best Pakistan fielders of his time he is expected to improve the lot of what must be among the world's poorest fielding sides. Ijaz was with the side in Dubai as a batting and fielding trainer for the two Twenty20 internationals against England.

The PCB has also spoken about their plans to engage foreign coaches for consultancy stints as and when needed on Pakistan's tours, of which there will be a few given that they are not playing at home for some time. The idea sits well with Waqar.

"I think that is good thinking and I would be happy with anything that works to better and improve the state of the national side," Waqar told Cricinfo.

Remarkably there is still no official announcement on the fate of Intikhab Alam, the man Waqar is replacing. Intikhab still has time to run on his contract; he was appointed for two years in October 2008. The board initially said that a decision would be taken on the coaching set-up only after an inquiry committee analyzing the Australia tour completed its work and made its recommendations. But they seem to have pre-empted themselves by contacting and now offering the position, without having - publicly at least - decided on the fate of Intikhab.