F.P. Report
LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed former New Zealand international Grant Bradburn as the new head coach of the Pakistan men’s team.
Bradburn has already served as head coach on a consultancy basis during the recently concluded series against New Zealand.
According to the PCB announcement on Saturday, Grant Bradburn will lead the Pakistani team for the next two years.
With Bradburn’s support Pakistan levelled the T20I series 2-2 and defeated New Zealand 4-1 in the ODI series, briefly holding the No.1 spot in the ICC Men’s ODI team rankings. Although they lost it after losing the final ODI, they are just two points behind Australia, who are in the top spot.
Bradburn was also Pakistan’s fielding coach from 2018 to 2020 and then moved to the National Cricket Academy to work on the coaches development. He has also coached the Scotland men’s team until 2017 and the New Zealand A and U19 side before that.
“It is a great honour for me to work with the highly talented and skilful side like Pakistan as a head coach,” said Bradburn after his appointment.
“We have been working hard on our raising our game and are eager to showcase our growing skills. Mickey Arthur and I are excited to support, challenge and develop our players. The New Zealand series has been valuable to get game time and create clarity of roles, culture and brand to win.
“We have raised the bar of expectation and we will keep challenging our players. The process has started and our players are agreeing to take these challenges head-on. ODI cricket has evolved and our agreed expectations are aligned to being the best in the world. We have mutually agreed with our players they are capable of higher team scores, even when setting totals. There has been immediate positive signs during this series and this group of players is determined to continually improve, to put ourselves into contention to win major events,” he was quoted as saying in press release issued by the PCB.
PCB Management Committee Chairman Najam Sethi said: “I am delighted to name Grant Bradburn as the head coach of our men’s side. Bradburn joins the side with plethora of coaching experience. After having worked with our men’s side before and at the National Cricket Academy, he understands our culture and philosophy of cricket well and is an ideal candidate to take our team forward.”
“After the announcement of Mickey Arthur as team director, Bradburn’s appointment is another step in our endeavours of putting together a highly qualified coaching panel so our players can benefit from their experiences and dominate world cricket in all three formats,” he added.
The PCB also announced that former South Africa cricketer Andrew Puttick has signed a two-year contract as the batting coach, meanwhile strength and conditioning coach Drikus Saaiman and physiotherapist Cliffe Deacon will continue to work in their roles.
With the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup less than six months away, Pakistan are gearing up for the mega tournament with a new approach dubbed as The Pakistan Way.
Team Director Mickey Arthur elaborated on the new playing style: “If a team wins without a culture, without a brand or without a style, it may work for a short period but will eventually fall. If a team is losing with a culture, a brand and its own style, then it is moving towards the right direction.
“So how do we achieve The Pakistan Way? We achieve this by winning while having our own culture, our own brand of cricket and our own style. We will not be satisfied with wins without that culture in the team. Pakistan as a nation is proud of its identity, culture and style. I love Pakistan and Pakistan cricket; I want to leave behind a legacy as a director where the rest of the world says we want to play The Pakistan Way.
“To achieve the on-field success, the team management will emphasis on the importance of building a culture where a player’s success is enjoyed by everyone and creating an inclusive environment where anyone can speak up at anytime and everyone is treated equally eventually resulting in achieving collective goals as a nation and team.”
Pakistan are next slated to play a three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, followed by the 50-over Asia Cup as a part of their preparation for the World Cup.
