Ramiz Raja says “On-field performance is reflecting the off-field turbulence”

• Ramiz Raja accuses PCB of disturbing national team.
• Sethi said last month that Mickey is front-runner to become head coach.
• Saqlain and Yousuf are in charge of coaching staff.

After the Babar Azam-led team lost the New Zealand one-day international (ODI) series, former Pakistan cricketer Ramiz Raja accused the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) of disturbing the national team.

“The on-field performance is reflecting the off-field turbulence, unfortunately,” Raja said on his official YouTube channel.

“While the team already has a coach, you went to Mickey Arthur and openly said Pakistani coaches are rubbish and get involved in politics, so we are going to bring foreign coaches. They went to a foreign coach during a series and eventually, the coach said he wasn’t available”, Raja criticised.

He added: “These things are supposed to happen in-house, behind the scenes. Even if you want a change, you do it quietly and give due respect to your coach.

“But when you go against a coach like this, it kills his passion and drive, and the team inevitably comes under pressure, which it was already under.”

Mickey Arthur is the front-runner to become the head coach of the national side, according to Najam Sethi, the chairman of the PCB management committee, who made the implication last month.

Former off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq is in charge of the coaching staff for the Pakistani men’s cricket team, and Mohammad Yousuf is in charge of the batting department.

“Our local superstars and former players will be employed, we will look after them and find them jobs but they won’t be coaching the team,” Sethi told media in Lahore.

“When I was in power, we had Mickey Arthur and results were evident. We were world number one in both ODI and Test cricket, and we won the Champions Trophy as well.”

A few days ago, though, PCB said that Arthur’s appointment was “proving difficult to actualize for different reasons on both sides.”

But the PCB went on to say that it would “continue its hunt for the best person to fit the slot of the national team head coach and several top names are already under consideration.”

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