KARACHI, 13 June 2003 — The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is keen to appoint Australian bowling coach Daryl Foster as the head coach of its National Cricket Academy in Lahore.
PCB Chief Executive Rameez Raja said that Foster had confirmed to the board that he would be available after June 25 for any assignment associated with the National Cricket Academy.
“We wanted him to join the senior team in England for the three One-Day Internationals but he was not available. But now he has confirmed his availability after 25th June,” said Rameez. He stated that the feedback on Foster’s skills and record as a coach who had worked with various cricket academies in Australia, England and Sri Lanka was outstanding as was his report during the period he remained attached with the Pakistan team in the last three years. “The feedback we have got is that he is a committed and attuned coach who is well versed with working in academies. We are looking at the prospects of appointing him chief coach of our National Cricket Academy so that we have the best man available to look after things during the period when the NCA starts functioning and has teething problems,” he stated.
Rameez said that if Foster is appointed chief coach he would not be available round the year in Pakistan but would still give lot of time to the PCB’s academies program. “He has committed to that much.” However Rameez said the Board was planning to have an international mix of coaches at the NCA and even some of the former Pakistan greats would be involved in the coaching program besides other foreigners if available.
The PCB CEO said no time frame had been set for launching the NCA but this would happen soon. “And whenever it happens then things would be on the right track as the plan is to operate the NCA round the year it would be a 12 months affair.”
He said the board was also trying to have link ups and exchange programs with other cricket academies in South Africa, Australia, England etc. so that their boys could come over to Pakistan for a few weeks and some of the Pakistani players could go over to their academies for specialized training.
“Hopefully during my visit to England next week I will have fruitful discussions on this topic with the representatives of other boards,” he added.
Meanwhile, the PCB has imported five different kind of cricket pitches for its indoor school at the NCA in Lahore. Raja said that the portable pitches, which had been prepared in greenhouses would be installed in the indoor school at the NCA in the coming weeks. “These pitches are of different nature. One is a purely batting one, one is encouraging for the spinners, one is for fast bowlers, another one is bouncy and hard etc. The idea is that in the indoor school our youngsters can get to practice on different types of pitches.” Rameez said that the pitches had been prepared in greenhouses with the same techniques now used to prepare pitches in England, New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand in recent times has used such a pitch at its Eden Park in Auckland while in Australia such pitches were specially installed at the Colonial stadium in Melbourne for the indoor night games that Australia has played against South Africa and Pakistan in the last three years. Rameez without giving the costs for importing the five pitches said that indoor floodlights were also being installed in the indoor school so that players could practice at any time of the day in the NCA.
