KARACHI: Alleged misbehaviour of a Pakistan Cricket Board official with Younis Khan led to the former captain quitting his batting coach position with the national team ahead of the England tour.
A highly reliable source close to the PCB told PTI that Younis wanted to join the team’s bio-bubble few days later and that conversation with a board official led to him stepping down as batting coach.
“The real and factual reason is that Younis had asked the PCB to allow him to join the mandatory bio-bubble for the England tour after a few days’ delay as he had to undergo a complex dental treatment in Karachi,” the source said.
“Younis had come down to Lahore for three days to attend the conditioning camp set up at the High Performance Center for the England tour.
“But when it was announced that all players and officials will have to start quarantine from 20th July before boarding the flight to England, Younis requested the PCB to allow him to return to Karachi and undergo the dental treatment and give him permission to join the team late,” the source added.
He disclosed that a PCB official with whom Younis spoke told him clearly that he couldn’t join late or he would miss the series in England due to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for quarantine protocols.
“Apparently during the course of the conversation things heated up when the official told Younis that he should then just go to the West Indies as his request could not be entertained at such a late stage,” the source revealed.
He said that after an exchange of some words, Younis also lost his cool and told the PCB official that it is better he not go on the tours to England and West Indies.
“Later PCB Chairman, Ehsan Mani and CEO Wasim Khan also spoke to Younis to sort out the matter but the former captain who is known to be temperamental said he didn’t want to carry on working as batting coach any longer,” said the source.
Another source close to Younis also disclosed that while it was true that Younis did have his disagreements with a few players in South Africa over their attitude and professionalism, this was not the reason for his resigning as batting coach.
“Generally he got along with all the players in the team as they respected his work ethics a lot.” “The truth is Younis was not particularly happy with the progress of the team and batsmen and also over the fact that some of the batsmen he felt should be in the squad were not being considered for selection.
“Bottomline Younis was not happy with the way things were progressing and wanted a way out of his batting coach position and when there was disagreement over his joining the team late, he got the opportunity to step down.” The PCB is yet to announce a replacement for Younis although the Pakistan squad has reached England for their white ball series.