Dav's the man

Pakistan's coaching saga is possibly rushing towards a dramatic conclusion. I say 'possibly' because few predictions can be made with certainty in the realm of Pakistan cricket. Yet the final shortlist looks to be of three Australians, albeit one of them is of Sri Lankan origin. The subtext is that the PCB has decided a foreign coach is the answer to Pakistan's woes, a view I find perplexing since the prime imperative should be to appoint the best candidate from wherever. Bob Woolmer's major difficulty was that he was unable to get under the skin of the players' culture and hence it became possible to marginalise his influence.

Of the three remaining candidates--and you might reasonably ask what became of Aaqib Javed, Tim Boon, and Javed Miandad?--the man for the job has to be Dav Whatmore. He knows the Australian way but he also knows Asia. He has succeeded with both Sri Lanka (World Cup winners) and Bangladesh (World Cup giant killers) in different ways. He has yet to coach one of Asia's big two but the leap should not be beyond him. Indeed, it is a great time to coach Pakistan with a young captain and young team ready to be shaped into something more substantial.

Dav's the Man from this Australian shortlist, but as usual the PCB has managed to supervise the process in such a way that you wonder how they ruled out some of the other promising candidates? Dav Whatmore, welcome to the whacky world of Pakistan cricket.