Pakistan Cricket Board decides not to renew coach Arthur's contract

Mickey Arthur clicked during a Pakistan training session

In a major overhaul in Pakistan cricket, the Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday decided not to renew the contract of head coach Mickey Arthur and the rest of the coaching staff.

The PCB announced that it will be "immediately undertaking a robust recruitment process" after refusing to renew the contracts of Arthur, Flower, bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, and trainer Grant Luden.

The PCB Cricket Committee, which met on Friday, was unanimous in its recommendations for the change. Pakistan earlier narrowly missed out on making the knockout stages of the World Cup 2019 in England after winning five and losing three of their nine matches in the tournament.

"As part of the recruitment process, the PCB will now advertise the four available roles and will invite high-level applications from interested candidates," the Board said in a statement.

The recommendations of the meetup were forwarded and discussed with Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ehsan Mani. The PCB cricket committee is headed by Managing Director Wasim Khan and includes former captains Wasim Akram, Misbah-ul-Haq, Urooj Mumtaz and Mudassar Nazar (PCB's Director academies) and Zakir Khan (head international cricket operations).

"The unanimous recommendation of the Committee was that it was time for new leadership and a fresh approach. I am happy to accept their strong recommendations," Mani said.

"On behalf of the PCB, I want to sincerely thank Mickey Arthur, Grant Flower, Grant Luden and Azhar Mahmood for their hard work and unwavering commitment during their tenures with the national men's team. We wish them every success in their future endeavors," he added.

Pakistan cricket team was criticised for their overall performance in the World Cup 2019 including the match against India, in which Pakistan slumped to a big defeat. There were calls for Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed's ouster as captain of the team and Mickey Arthur had given a negative feedback on the captain's performance in his post-tournament analysis.

Mickey Arthur who became the head coach of the Pakistan cricket team in mid-2016 and had asked the committee members to renew his contract for two years and assured far better results with the team.

"The PCB remains committed to its fans and followers and we will do our utmost to ensure that we make decisions that continue to move Pakistan cricket forward in all formats," Ehsan Mani said.

Former Zimbabwean batsman, Grant Flower was working with the Pakistan team for the last four years.

Pakistan's next assignment is a two-Test series against Sri Lanka either at home or in UAE in October as part of the ICC World Test Championship schedule.

There were marathon sessions between the cricket committee that was set up to analyse Pakistan's performance and with Mickey Arthur and Sarfaraz Ahmed.

"I am extremely disappointed and hurt," the South African Mickey Arthur told AFP shortly after the Pakistan Cricket Board announced his departure. "I did my wholehearted effort to lift Pakistan cricket," he added.

With inputs from PTI/AFP

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