Former players have vested interests: Nasim Ashraf

Lahore, June 20 (UNI) PCB boss Nasim Ashraf has charged former Test players of having ''vested interests'' after they had questioned the board's coach selection procedure, and said a foreigner was more likely to succeed in the role.

Several former cricketers, including Intikhab Alam and Javed Miandad, had said they felt insulted by the PCB advertisement which required them to apply for the post of the coach of Pakistan team.

''If it is insulting to these players, they should never apply to PCB, it's up to them,'' Nasim Ashraf told Voice of America.

''The PCB wants to bring in transparency and merit and I am surprised at such former players who treat it insult to apply to the PCB for any slot. If they don't want to apply, they should not do so 100 times.

''I have seen in the past six months that there are vested interests of former players,'' he added.

On the appointment of coach for Pakistan cricket team, Dr Ashraf said, ''whenever PCB had national coaches, they have been under pressure that led to infighting in the team and other problems.'' ''The decided advantage of a foreign coach is that he is not a party to the cricket politics of Pakistan, thus his chances of success are better as players respect and respond to a foreign coach much better than the national coach,'' the PCB chairman opined.

UNI