Raja says “Arthur’s appointment is futile exercise and will massively backfire”

• Ramiz Raja criticises Mickey Arthur’s appointment as Pakistan team manager.
• Raja slams ‘futile exercise’ that will ‘massively backfire’.
• Raja also hopes skipper Azam was consulted before such a decision was made.

Ramiz Raja, a former leader of the Pakistan Cricket Board, thinks that Mickey Arthur’s appointment as manager of the national men’s team may not be the best move.

Arthur will continue to work full-time with English county side Derbyshire, but it should be emphasised that he won’t always travel with the Pakistan team.

“I think this has been massively mishandled because this concept won’t work. This is an ego-driven decision because they don’t want to accept what the previous board has done. You are allowed to formulate your own strategy but that doesn’t mean that you belittle local coaches and stars,” Raja said on his official YouTube channel.

“I think this is a futile exercise and will massively backfire,” he added.

Raja also hoped that skipper Babar Azam was consulted before such a decision was made.

“I don’t whether he has talked about this or not but Babar Azam, despite being easy going, has very strong views on certain things. I hope he was consulted before such a step was taken,” he said.

In addition, Arthur previously led the Pakistan team for three years after taking over in 2016.

However, following the team’s fifth-place finish in the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, the PCB made the decision not to renew the contracts of Arthur and his support staff.

According to a government notice, Raja was fired just days after the national team lost a humiliating first-ever 3-0 home series against England.

However, a shift had been anticipated since since Imran Khan, a former national captain, was replaced as prime minister by Shehbaz Sharif in April.

In September of last year, Raja, a member of Khan’s 1992 World Cup-winning team, was named chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

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