KARACHI // Pakistan's cricket authorities have not appointed former captain Salim Malik as head coach of the national cricket academy, despite an announcement by the player. Malik, who had a life ban for alleged involvement in match-fixing overturned last month, said that he had accepted an offer from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to become head coach at the academy in Lahore. However, the PCB's director of cricket operations Zakir Khan denied that a formal offer had been made to Malik.
"It is all a misunderstanding. No offer was ever made to Malik to be head coach at the academy," Khan said. "Some general and informal discussions were held on the issue with Malik and nothing more." Malik said that he agreed to the job on Monday after a meeting with board chairman Ijaz Butt. His public announcement led to the International Cricket Council (ICC) saying it was not happy with the appointment and would seek an explanation from the PCB.
"I spoke to the ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat and explained the situation to him," Khan said. The ICC has yet to ratify the court's ruling and officially allow Malik's return to cricket after the cricketer overruled his ban last month. He was banned in 2001 for alleged match-fixing which saw other prominent Pakistani players fined at the time. The Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif resigned in protest as wicketkeeping coach from the PCB academy over the news that Malik was apparently being offered the position as head coach.
"How can I accept this decision and work with him at the academy when I testified against him that he was involved in match fixing?" Latif said. Khan said that Latif had acted in haste. "He should have waited for what we had to say because we never made any announcement that Malik would be head coach at the academy," he said. *Reuters
