The Pakistani Spectator

PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said on Saturday that Waqar Younis has been given a contract until December 2011 and will be paid a monthly salary of 650,000 rupees to work as Pakistan coach.

He said Wasim Akram, another former Test paceman, was also considered for the coaching job. “We had a choice in between Waqar and Wasim Akram, but since Akram was busy with his commitments in media we decided to appoint Waqar as the new coach,” Butt said, adding that former Test batsman Ijaz Ahmed will assist Waqar as fielding and batting coach. The PCB had been looking for a new coach since Australia beat Pakistan 3-0 in the Test series and 5-0 in the one-day series.

Waqar, who formed a lethal pace combination with Akram in the 90s, lives in Sydney and will be coming to Pakistan next week to take up his new assignment.

Butt said he had considered bringing in a coach from abroad, but that all the candidates were too expensive and unwilling to live in Pakistan.

“Foreign coaches were demanding big money and were willing to work with our team only when its touring some other country,” Butt said. “This was not acceptable to us.”

Former coach Alam, who took over in October 2008 from Geoff Lawson, has been appointed as director cricket academies and Butt said the former Test spinner will groom youngsters in cricket academies at Lahore and Karachi. “Soon we will have two more academies in Multan and Islamabad and Alam’s services will be utilised in all these four academies,” Butt said.

Source: The News