CricketViewer.com

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will on Thursday finalise the name of the senior team’s manager for the tour of Sri Lanka with former Test captain Zaheer Abbas a front-runner candidate for the prestigious post.

A Board official said the Chairman Shaharyar Khan would look at a shortlist of persons for the position before finalising one name.

“It’s not clear at this stage whether the appointment would be for just the Sri Lanka series or for a long-term period including the important England tour this summer,” the official said. He added that the chairman had also drawn up a few names for consideration while the Director Cricket Operations, Saleem Altaf had also been asked to pin down some candidates.

“Zaheer appears to be the joint favourite for the post but there are others also in the run. The Board is facing one problem with Zaheer and that’s he has demanded proper fee for his services while normally the manager’s post is an honorary one although the general consensus is that the former Test player is well respected among the players,” another Board source said.

Zaheer and another former Test captain Majid Khan were both approached for the manager’s post sometime back but refused due to various reasons.

Zaheer was said to have been more interested in taking on the chief selector’s mantle but Majid had refused outright to have anything to do with cricket administration.

The PCB’s Ad-hoc Committee finally decided last month that there was a need to have a full-time manager with the team permanently but Shaharyar is of the opinion that it would be a good idea to make appointments on series-to-series basis.

The Pakistan team was without a manager for the home series against England and India with a senior Board official Asad Mustafa handling administrative matters on a part-time basis.

Before that Saleem Altaf had managed the team on tours to India and the West Indies last year.

Technorati Tags: PCB, Zaheer Abbas, Sri Lanka, England, Majid Khan, Saleem Altaf, India, West Indies