Whatmore to seal deal as Pakistan coach?

LAHORE: Dav Whatmore, the man tipped to become Pakistan’s next cricket coach, arrived for an interview in Lahore Saturday, moving a step closer to taking the sport’s hot seat.

The 57-year-old former Australian batsman, who coached Sri Lanka to World Cup glory in 1996, is the favourite to replace Waqar Younis who quit the post in September last year over health issues.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed former opener Mohsin Khan as an interim coach against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but had to extend his stint in charge for the series against England as the selection process was delayed.

Pakistan take on England in the first of three Tests in Dubai from Tuesday.

The Tests will be followed by four one-day and three Twenty20 internationals. A new coach will take over during the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in March.

PCB appointed a three-man committee headed by former captain Intikhab Alam, which shortlisted five candidates for the post.

“Whatmore has reached here and we will talk to him on the issue,” Alam told AFP, without giving further details. PCB has also kept silent on the issue so as not to derail the process.

Whatmore, who played seven Tests and one one-day international for Australia in 1979, was in talks with the PCB through another former captain Ramiz Raja, who assisted the committee.

Whatmore, who also coached Bangladesh between 2003-2007, resigned from his role as coach of the Indian Premier League side Kolkata Knight Riders earlier this month.

Pakistan has a history of sacking its coaches and has had six in the last ten years.

It showed the door to its first foreign coach Richard Pybus of South Africa after the 2003 World Cup, and sacked former Australian paceman Geoff Lawson in 2008.

But former England batsman Bob Woolmer had a successful stint from 2004 before he died in mysterious circumstances in the West Indies, a day after Ireland upset Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup.

England’s former county player Julian Fountain is in contention to take over as fielding coach, while former Pakistan paceman Aqib Javed — already on UAE tour — is the likely bowling coach.

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ICC considers T20 for Olympics

PERTH: The strong emergence of the Twenty20 format has the ICC considering a bid to have cricket return to the Olympics after more than a century, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said on Saturday.

Cricket has been played only once at the Olympics, in 1900, although it was not officially recognised as an Olympic sport until 12 years later.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s world governing body, was officially recognised as a federation by the International Olympic Committee in 2010, meaning the ICC can bid to join the 2020 Games.

Speaking on radio at the third Test between Australia and India in Perth, Lorgat said Twenty20 was the first international cricket format suitable for the Olympics.

“We have never had a format that would lend itself to playing in the Olympics until Twenty20 came to the fore,” he said.

“We are starting to have a look at that.

“In the strategic plan the board approved in 2011, we will evaluate properly what the benefits are for Olympic participation. There are pros and cons to that decision.

“We would need to see what the implications would be on the Cricket World Cup.”

Lorgat said the biggest hurdle facing cricket’s return to the Olympics was the already packed playing schedule.

“If we were to introduce cricket into the Olympics, that is another extended period of time taken out of the calendar,” he said.

Lorgat added that the ICC was keen to limit the amount of Twenty20 cricket played at international level.

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