PCB retains Miandad as coach

After days of post-mortems and lots of speculation, the Pakistan board has decided to continue with Javed Miandad as the coach of the team. Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, said that the board did not want to set a bad precedent by sacking the coach every time the team lost.

Shaharyar insisted that there was no necessity to panic over just one series loss. The News, a Pakistan daily, quoted Shaharyar as saying, "Miandad will continue to be the coach of the national team till the expiry of his contract, that is the start of the next year. It would not be just to judge the coach on the result of just one series. Nobody can blame the coach alone for the series defeat against India."

He also confirmed that the captains would be appointed on a series-to-series basis henceforth instead of the current fixed-term system. "We announced Inzamam-ul-Haq as captain of the Pakistan team till the Asia Cup. The trend will now change to announcing the captain on a series-to-series basis." Shaharyar, however, clarified that the coach would continue to work for fixed terms.

Earlier, Miandad had expressed his anguish over the treatment meted out to him by the PCB. "Since the conclusion of the series," Miandad told Dawn, "the PCB has been raising questions on the performance of the team management while clearing Inzamam. Now they are talking of the two-year contract with me. It hurts me deeply when people challenge my integrity and honesty. I want respect and nothing else."

Miandad stressed that he had taken over when the team was in a rebuilding stage, and he had managed to achieve favourable results even under trying circumstances.