KARACHI - Pakistan bowling great Waqar Younis has said that he is as still undecided on whether to apply for the post of head coach of the national team. Waqar has emerged as a front runner to take over as head coach of the Pakistan team after Australian Dav Whatmore's two year contract was not extended by the board (PCB) this month.
Waqar, who has coached the Pakistan team in 2010 and 2011 before resigning on health and personal grounds, on Sunday said that he had not yet decided on whether to apply again for the job. "Honestly speaking I have still not made up my mind. I have other assignments in the media and there is still time for me to think over it. I have to see whether it is worth it or whether I can do justice to this job," Waqar, who took over 800 international wickets during his illustrious career said.
The PCB has formed a coaching committee including former captains Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram and Intikhab Alam and the board's chief operating officer Subhan Ahmad to evaluate and recommend final candidates for the posts of head coach, fielding coach and batting coach of the national team. The committee has given February 6 as the deadline for interested candidates to apply for the posts.
Indications are that the committee has also advised Waqar to apply for the post of head coach. Waqar, who is said to be now settling down in Dubai from Australia with his family, said he can't say whether he will apply eventually. But he admitted that coaching the Pakistan team was a challenge that appealed to him.
"It is a job where one can contribute a lot and it is very self satisfying. I enjoyed my last stint as head coach even though they were some problems," Waqar said. "The team is like a family and yes there were differences with Shahid Afridi but we sat down later on and talked it out. It is no big deal but overall it was a good experience coaching the Pakistan team," he said.
He also had words of praise for Afridi, saying the all-rounder remained an automatic selection in the limited over teams and must be part of Pakistan's World Cup squad. Waqar also felt the PCB had adopted the right procedure to select the new coaches of the national team.
He also advised the board to look at restructuring domestic cricket and reducing the number of first class matches.
"I think there is lot of quantity now but less quantity and we need to have lesser matches and we can produce more quality players," he said. The former captain also felt that with so much international cricket being played these days there was an acute need to skillfully manage the pacers.