Pakistan Cricket Board is adamant about providing the best opportunities to players ahead of the Pakistan Junior League and has arranged for some of the best U-19 domestic and foreign coaches to guide the six teams in the competition.
Gordon Parsons and Toby Radford are the two foreign coaches who have been recruited for the PCB Pathway Programme with Parsons being named the head coach of Bahawalpur Royals while Radford will be coaching Rawalpindi Raiders in the inaugural season.
The Pakistani coaching contingent includes Pakistan U19 and Shaheen’s coach Ijaz Ahmed Snr, who has been handed the reigns of the Gujranwala Giants’ coaching staff while Mushtaq Ahmed will be the head coach of the Gwadar Sharks. Abdul Razzaq will work with the Hyderabad Hunters while Abdur Rehman will be the Mardan Warrior’s head coach.
According to the governing body of Pakistan cricket, each of the six coaches has been assigned support staff as well.
Former Test opener Imran Farhat will be Bahwalpur’s batting coach and Aizaz Cheema will be the bowling coach for Gujranwala.
Kamran Khan will be Gwadar’s batting coach and Sindh head coach Ghulam Ali will join Razzaq as Hyderabad’s batting coach. Former pacer Mohammad Sami will take his first coaching assignment as bowling coach of Mardan.
The rest of the support staff for the six teams will be announced in due course.
PCB has already assigned mentors to their respective teams who, along with the assigned coaches, will select the teams during the ongoing draft.
Pakistan Junior League Coaches:
Bahawalpur Royals:
Mentor – Imran Tahir, Head coach – Gordon Parsons, Batting coach – Imran Farhat
Gujranwala Giants:
Mentor – Shoaib Malik, Head coach – Ijaz Ahmed Snr, Bowling coach – Aizaz Cheema
Gwadar Sharks:
Mentor – Vivian Richards, Head coach – Mushtaq Ahmed, Batting coach – Kamran Khan
Hyderabad Hunters:
Mentor – Daren Sammy, Head coach – Abdul Razzaq, Batting coach – Ghulam Ali
Mardan Warriors:
Mentor – Shahid Afridi, Head coach – Abdur Rehman, Bowling coach – Mohammad Sami
Rawalpindi Raiders:
Mentor – Colin Munro, Head coach – Toby Radford, Batting coach – Muhammad Masroor
