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Pakistan would take their time before appointing ‘the best available man’ as their national coach, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said on Friday.

“We are not in a hurry,” Zakir Khan, PCB’s Director of Cricket Operations, told ‘The News’. “Appointing a new national coach is a sensitive issue for us and we cannot decide about it in a hurry,” he added.

Zakir, a former Test cricketer, said that the PCB would do its homework before picking ‘the best possible’ man for the assignment.

“The coach’s appointment would be among the most important decisions made by the Board and would come after detailed deliberations,” he explained.

Zakir said that the committee given the task by the PCB to help select a new national coach would meet in Lahore early next week to shortlist candidates.

“The committee was supposed to meet yesterday but had to postpone the meeting because one of its members wasn’t available. It would now meet on Monday or Tuesday,” said Zakir, who is a member of the committee that also includes Mudassar Nazar, Director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and another former Test cricketer Imtiaz Ahmed.

Yesterday’s meeting could not be held because of Imtiaz’s unavailability.

Zakir rejected the impression that the committee has already shortlisted possible candidates. “The committee would only meet for the first time next week so how can it shortlist candidates,” he expressed.

He said that the committee would review the resumes of the 15 candidates, who have applied for the job, apart from a couple of more coaches including former Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore. The Australian, who is seen as a favourite for the Pakistan job, hasn’t formally applied for the job.

Zakir said Whatmore remains in contention for the job. “You don’t need to have the CVs of top coaches like Whatmore or Greg Chappell. Their credentials are known to everybody,” he added.

However, Zakir rejected reports that Whatmore has recently shown an interest in coaching Pakistan.