Former Pakistan leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed said on Sunday (September 6) that he’d love to take up a coaching role in his country, but is ‘scared of working’ for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and not getting the respect and job security he deserves. Ahmed has worked previously with the PCB in multiple roles, but is currently serving as a spin-bowling coach for the Bangladesh team.
PCB’s image, already among the worst in the world, took a major hit when seven players were sent home, and coaches Sarfaraz Ahmed and Umar Gul were sacked after the team’s losses in the first two Tests of the three-match series against England. Seven replacements were announced, five of them uncapped, and white-ball coach Mike Hesson’s team was asked to take over the final
Test.
“I would love to do that for my country, of course,” Ahmed said on the BBC Stumped Podcast. “Especially at this time. Obviously, I need only one thing. Sometimes you get scared of working for your own country when the people don’t respect you and they sack you because of a few emotional decisions here and there… When you see those things, people getting sacked on a tour, you get worried and scared,” he added.
Ahmed said he was hurt as an ex-cricketer after seeing Sarfaraz and Gull sacked in the middle of the series, saying that PCB should have at least shown the courtesy of waiting till the end of the series.
“I think those are the things that, if you can get that sorted, I think every Pakistani cricketer who is coaching, not only myself, they’d love to serve the country. This is the best time for me to take that challenge and bring those players to their best, make them confident about international cricket and make a unit that can actually challenge opposition teams,” Mushtaq added.
The former leg-spinner first served as the team’s bowling consultant between 2014 and 2016. He returned to the national setup in 2020 as the official spin bowling coach, a role he held until 2022.
