Pakistan greats applaud Lawson sacking

CRICKET: ISLAMABAD, Oct 25 - Former Pakistan cricket greats Friday applauded the sacking of national coach Geoff Lawson and wasted no time in attacking the former Australian bowler.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked Lawson on Friday, just 15 months after the former paceman took up the position.

"Lawson's sacking was inevitable," former captain and master batsman Zaheer Abbas told AFP. "This comes as a popular decision because results were not there, we have had enough of the foreign coaches."

However, Abbas said Lawson was not totally to blame for Pakistan's poor results, saying the PCB had exercised bad judgement in hiring him.

"The PCB appointed him coach so the blame must be shared between the two parties but I think after having three foreign coaches we must realise that they do not belong to our culture and do not give it all."

The 50-year-old Lawson was appointed Pakistan coach in July last year after Pakistan's first-round defeat in the World Cup in the Caribbean in March.

Calls for his removal intensified when Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka in the final of the T20 four-nation event in Canada earlier this month.

Another former captain, chief selector Aamir Sohail, a persistent critic of Lawson, said the decision was the correct one given his lack of progress with the team. "I would term this as a popular decision," he said.

"I would not take into account results because they are part and parcel of the game. I would say it is a correct decision because the team was not showing any progress under him."

Sohail said he favoured former batting great Javed Miandad to take over.

Intikhab Alam, also one of the favourites to replace Lawson, said a clean-up was needed of Pakistan cricket and the Australian had failed to deliver.

"We need a clean-up for positive change in Pakistan cricket and I found Lawson as abrasive and unyielding," said Alam, a former coach and manager, who also led Pakistan in the 1970s.

"It (Lawson's sacking) should have happened earlier."

Former opener Mohsin Khan said Lawson lacked the experience as an international coach and even questioned his success as a player.

"Lawson has no caliber to coach at top level. He was a second string bowler in his playing days (for Australia) when pacemen Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson ruled the world, even Terry Alderman was ahead of him," said Khan.

AFP