Unknown Foster named as bowling coach

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Thursday named virtually unknown Daryl Foster as the national team's bowling coachcum consultant for tour to England another mind boggling decision which will be debated for days to come.

An official of the PCB revealed that Foster would also work as consultant of the team but his contract was only for the two Tests "which is extendable upto the tri-nation one-day series".

The first Test at Lord's begins May 17 while the second Test at Old Trafford concludes June 4. The 18-day one-day series, also involving Australia and the hosts, will kick off at Edgbaston June 7.

The PCB spokesman added that a full-time coach to replace sacked Javed Miandad would be named `soon' but confirmed that Foster would join the team in England where it is due to arrive May 2.

Although no details about the financial package offered to the former Kent county coach were released, but was anybody's guess that if Geoffrey Boycott can claim 30,000 pounds for a 15-day coaching stint, Foster would be getting the same if not more.

The free-spending PCB sustained the criticizm of wasting money on Boycott saying the Yorkshireman was sponsored by a food chain. But it will have to come up with a sound explanation to justify the investment on Foster.

It means all the current expenses to run the establishment are being met from previous earnings whether they be the 1996 World Cup profits $6 million from PILCOM or television rights of the recent home series.

It may not be out of context to mention here that the PCB has not conducted any audit of expenses for the last 18 months. And if anything has been done, the official document has not seen the daylight.

On the face of it, it appears that Foster has been hired specifically for controversial pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who underwent remodelling of his bowling action in the University of Western Australia in Perth.

The PCB has been emphasising for the last two days that it has proof that Shoaib's action was clean a claim based on the report submitted by Foster's university.

The PCB admitted that Foster's appointment did have an influence of him working with Shoaib. Which means that in Foster, the PCB has hired a "lawyer" for Shoaib to counter the hostile British media which is certainly not going to make the pacer's life easy.

Foster's job description as bowling coach is nothing but a belated attempt to give a legal cover because it is anybody's guess that in the presence of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram, if selected, who could be better persons to guide the young pacers.

Wasim and Waqar together have around 20 years of experience of playing in England while the second Test is at Wasim's home country Lancashire.

Besides, if Wasim and Waqar are so deadly, it is not because they got the guidance of a bowling coach. They were nurtured by Imran Khan who tutored them and passed on valuable tips on the field rather than on the drawing board.

It is the second time that a specific person to handle and look after Shoaib has been appointed. Earlier Dr Tauseef Razzak toured New Zealand with the Pakistan cricket team specially to look after Shoaib who has become a regular "tourist" than a playing member.

Shoaib, on whom the PCB has already spent millions, has failed to sustain a series in his previous three tours. The same is likely to happen again no matter whom the PCB appoints considering Shoaib's past record.