LAHORE: Six foreign coaches including two former England international cricketers will join the coaching panels of the domestic teams for the ongoing 2022-23 season.
The foreign coaches will be working in the current domestic season which includes the marquee red-ball event Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2022-23 commencing later next week.
According to the Pakistan Cricket Board, former England international players Paul Franks and Paul Nixon have been appointed as head coaches of Central Punjab and Sindh, respectively.
Franks has around ten years of coaching experience and previously served as assistant head coach at Nottinghamshire county in the English circuit.
Meanwhile, Nixon had coached Jamaican Tallawahs to two Caribbean Premier League titles. He is currently working as head coach of the Leicestershire County cricket.
Sindh’s next head coach will be relinquishing his current role in the coming days before travelling to Pakistan to take up the new assignment.
“The introduction of foreign coaches in domestic cricket is aimed at creating diversity,” said Director High Performance, Nadeem Khan as quoted by PCB. “These experienced foreign coaches working with the local coaches will ultimately help in the growth of the players.”
The newly appointed head coaches expressed their excitement about their upcoming stay in Pakistan and working with the local players.
“I have been to Pakistan before; I came with England U19 in the late 1990s. Then I was a very young man,” said Central Punjab head coach, Franks.
“I love coaching and I really enjoy coaching for the right reasons. It’s all about the players and I am really excited about the next few months here in Pakistan,” he added
Whereas, Sindh head coach Nixon said: “I have seen the Sindh team play so well in the T20 of late. They’ve been outstanding, their balance of experience and youth is just incredible.”
“Sarfaraz Ahmed as a leader brings the calmness and the experience, he is a very honest, open cricketer,” he claimed.
Mir Hamza, who’s been over to Sussex, bowled beautifully over there in England, he is a high-class player to have in our side. Saim Ayub looks a magnificent young left-hander batter, a very positive attacking player, which is exactly what we need.” he added.
Along with these two head coaches, four foreign coaches – Bilal Shafayat (Central Punjab), John Sadler (Sindh) will be fielding coaches and Richard Stonier (Central Punjab), Ian Fisher (Sindh) will be strength and conditioning coaches.
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