We had to make a tough decision, says PCB official Wasim Khan over Mickey Arthur's removal

Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach during the World Cup 2019 was removed after his return from the mega event. He was offered with the position of head coach in 2016, and under his guidance he made Pakistan win 2017 Champions Trophy but the performance of his team in 50 over mega-event this year was pretty normal where they lost their first match against West Indies. Although they accelerated in the latter stages but it was not enough to make them qualify for the semi-finals.

And, now Misbah-ul-Haq has been appointed as the new head coach of Pakistan for a tenure of three years and along with that, he will also hold the responsibility of selector. After the removal of Mickey Arthur, he didn’t look much impressed with the behavior shown towards him and also said that he was let down by PCB. Now, Pakistan official top officials have come out with their opinion over Arthur’s removal.

PCB officials opine over Arthur’s sacking

On Sunday, during an interview of cricket committee that was headed by Wasim Khan in the presence of Wasim Akram and Misbah-ul-Haq, the reporters fired some tough questions towards them over the sacking of their Champions Trophy-winning coach. They praised Mickey’s work but at last, they have to make a tough call for the betterment of Pakistan cricket.

“In Mickey’s defense, he did a lot of good things for Pakistan cricket. But we had to make a tough decision, it’s is a new regime, new domestic structure and we needed to be sustainable, have a proper succession plan for our leaders and coaches in Pakistan cricket.” as quoted by Sportstar.

Wasim Khan looked pretty focused over the inaugural Test Championship which according to him is very important for Pakistan cricket and that is why they have brought some changes in their red-ball domestic cricket, “Because red ball cricket matters to us it is the health check of any cricket playing country. ODI and T20 cricket is important I am not demeaning them but Test cricket matters to us.” Wasim added.

Pakistan is currently hosting Sri Lanka for a three-match ODI and T20I series and this is the first time that Misbah-ul-Haq will be the part of the team as head coach. After this, the next assignment of Pakistan will come as a tour to Australia where they will play three T20Is and two Test match series.