Afghanistan Cricket Board suffers financial crisis; had to let off Andy Moles

The coronavirus forced lockdown around the world has given the major blow even to the best of systems, and Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) is another victim in the same light. There hasn’t been single cricketing action in the country for over 5-months, and one of their key sponsors has also backed off during the COVID-19 crisis. All of this has forced ACB to let go of Andy Moles, who was appointed as technical director and chairman of the selection panel for Afghanistan cricket last year in October.

The decision by the board was taken on Monday, and now the board has replaced him with a former Afghanistan skipper Raiees Ahmadzai. Ahmadzai has been featured in 5 ODIs and 8 T20Is for the nation before getting retired in 2010. Since then, he has shouldered many responsibilities in the role of coach, the major one being the head coach of the U19 Afghanistan team.

Throwing some more light on the removal of Andy Moles, Nazim Jaar, the acting Chief executive of ACB told ESPNcricinfo, “He has been removed as cricket director. The reason is the lack of cricket and lack of budget.”

Andy Moles, who is the former Warwickshire cricketer, has worked as coach of the team from 2014-2015 before his tenure as technical director and chairman. He also served in the capacity of interim head coach when Phil Simmons stepped down post-2019 World Cup. Moles have been informed of the current decision by ACB informed Jaar.

ACB cut the salary of players by 50% in May this year

It was only in May that due shortage of funds and severe financial crisis due to no cricketing action, the board landed in a position to cut the salary of all players as well as coaching staff by 50%. According to Jaar, the rest of the coaching staff for the team will remain the same where Lance Klusener will be the head coach, and HD Ackermann will be the batting coach.

Afghanistan’s last international outing came in this year earlier in March. They played against Ireland in a T20I in Greater Noida. The match went on to become even more interesting because it was followed by a super over thriller where Ireland emerged victorious.