Javed confirms accepting offer to coach team

Karachi, Feb 29: Former captain Javed Miandad on Tuesday confirmed that he has accepted the offer to coach the Pakistan cricket team over the next four months. Miandad said from Lahore on telephone that chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Lt-Gen Tauqir Zia offered him the job last week which he accepted on Monday.

"I am grateful to the PCB chairman who expressed faith in me. As far as I am concerned, my services to the game and country are known to everyone so it is a needless question as to what I would like to do in this term," Miandad, Pakistan's most successful batsman, said.

He scored 8,832 runs in 124 Tests while from 228 one-day internationals, the master batsman totalled 7,327 runs. Miandad's acceptance ends the hype created by the PCB to secure the services of either Geoff Boycott or Barry Richards to coach the Pakistan team.

Miandad was last appointed as coach in September 1998 but resigned in April 1999 two weeks before the Pakistan team was to leave for England for the World Cup. Miandad confirmed that he will take charge of the team from Intikhab Alam after the home series against Sri Lanka which concludes in Karachi on March 16 with the third and final Test.

In a back-breaking next four months, Pakistan will play six Tests and nearly 25 one-day internationals in Sharjah, West Indies, Dhaka and Sri Lanka. Miandad said since he was part of the setup, he has not demanded any long-term contract. He, however, said with so much cricket ahead, he would continue until the away series against Sri Lanka. For the home series against England, he said the the PCB top hierarchy will sit down to decide his extension.

"I don't want any long-term assurances from the board. In the last two weeks, I have had peep-talks with the players and tried to help them overcome their problems. I was not the coach but still felt my responsibility to assist the players struggling for form," he said.

The 43-year-old Miandad said he was eagerly waiting for the tour of West Indies saying that it was yet another opportunity for him to beat the once invincible team in their den. "We came terribly close 12 years ago while the tour seven years back was a different one. I am happy that I have been provided with another chance to be part of the team which has all the ingredients to beat the West Indies in West Indies.

"I think this tour is very important for me and I desperately want to end up on the winning side," he said. Miandad said he fancied his chances because the West Indies team was not as formidable as it was in the past. He said the pitches in the West Indies were almost as identical as that of wickets in Pakistan - slow with low bounce.

"The team had a very difficult time over the last six weeks or so. But the way we fought back on the fourth day at Rawalpindi, I am confident that we are clawing are way back."

Miandad, nevertheless, emphasises that the present lot was immensely talented and required just one good performance to lift them. "This was the team which won two Tests out of three against India in India. If any team can beat India in their conditions, it can beat West Indies in West Indies. I am pretty confident about their (players) potential and skills," he said.