Miandad lashes out at PCB, calls for long-term plan

LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad, after turning down the PCB's offer to become the national team's batting coach, lashed out at the system and said things would never improve unless and until a long-term plan is set in place.Miandad, who isalso the director-general of cricket in the PCB, told reporters on Tuesday thathe didn't want to accept any position without authority."In the pastI have had three previous stints with the national team as head coach and theydidn't end well. That also influenced my decision," Miandadsaid."But mainly I didn't accept this position because I believethat there is a need for proper long-term planning in Pakistan cricket andimprovement cannot come through stop-gap measures," he added."Idon't see any purpose being served by having a team of coaches in the team. Wealready have several coaches for bowling and fielding in the team and you cansee the improvement in these areas in recent times," he said."It isof no use having so many coaches. There should be one coach and he should beresponsible for everything and also be given complete authority to take harddecisions," Miandad said.He said from a personal point of view ifany batsman needed coaching after graduating to international cricket he shouldbe dropped from the team."You don't need to be coached about battingtechniques at this level and I say if any player fails for a few matches or isgetting out making the same mistakes, drop him immediately and give others achance. Unless there is merit in selection nothing will move forward," hesaid.He pointed out that players were given chances despite notlearning or improving and that was not good for the team."These sortof issues were the reason for my past tussles with the board," henoted.Sources say that Miandad initially had shown interest in becoming the batting coach but wanted more authority than head coach, Waqar Younis, which the board didn't agree to."I've been offered thecoaching role before and I had taken it up as well but there were certain thingsthat happened due to which I will not coach again," said Miandad afterPakistan's training session in Lahore."I was sacked on variousoccasions in the past. When the team was in the process of rebuilding in 2004,the board's then chairman Shahryar Khan sacked me."So it goes toshow that Pakistan cricket basically is in trouble not just due to the playersbut also because of the management.""In the past, the managementnever really cared about the future. They didn't even think about where thesport was heading. They just didn't want to think about it."