By Ubaid Awan
KARACHI, Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) November 4, 2012: After former captain Salim Malik expressed his keen interest in joining the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as batting coach, Asian Bradman Zaheer Khan also jumped into the reckoning on Saturday when he applied for the job with the cricket board, TheSportsNEXT.comhas learnt.
Zaheer Abbas, who is regarded as one of the finest batsmen produced by Pakistan cricket, has been demanding a local batting coach for the national cricket team and now he has decided to come practically into the contention.
With Zaheer Abbas’s interest, the race to win post of Pakistan batting coach has heated up as other former Pakistani cricketers are also taking keen interest in the role.
Sources told this scribe that Zaheer Abbas has resigned from the PCB coach hunting committee and is now available to work as batting coach.
Zaheer Abbas has a clear edge over Salim Malik as Malik has had a tainted past but there is no question about the integrity of Zaheer Abbas while his reputation as a good batsman can be gauged by the fact that he was called by numerous former international cricketers as Asian Bradman.
Pakistan cricket team has been let down by batsmen over the years at international level and currently doesn’t have even a single quality Test batsman, a fact which has led Pakistan to numerous defeats in important matches.
Pakistan crashed out of the last month’s ICC World Twenty20 in semi-final when their batsmen failed to chase down a moderate target of 139. The dismal performance forced the PCB authorities to think seriously about having a full-time batting coach for the national cricket team.
PCB chief Zaka Ashraf constituted a three-man committee to scrutinize, shortlist, and recommend candidates for the post. The committee also included Intikhab Alam and Colonel (Retd) Naushad Ali other than Zaheer Abbas and had mandated time till December 5 to figure out the right man for the job.
It is important to mention here that Zaheer Abbas, a right-hand batsman, represented Pakistan in 78 Test matches and scored 5,062 runs at an average of 44.79 with highest score of 274. During the course of his Test career, the Asian Bradman hit 12 centuries, 20 half centuries and also took 34 catches. Zaheer Abbas also played 62 One Day Internationals scoring 2,572 runs at a healthy average of 47.62 with highest score of 123. He hit seven hundreds and 13 fifties during the course of his ODI career.
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