'This is an ego-driven decision' - Former chief Ramiz Raja tears apart PCB for Mickey Arthur's appointment as 'online coach'

Pakistan Cricket Board is continuously on the receiving end of hard and fast-lined criticism for appointing the former coach Mickey Arthur once again and that too in the capacity of ‘online coach’. Former Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja is the latest to join the list of hard-core critiques of the current PCB chief Najam Sethi and the board itself.

Notably, a few of the media reports have learned that the former coach of the national team Mickey Arthur is likely to take over the charge of men’s team director. Whereas prior to this, a few of the reports understood that PCB would acquire his services as an ‘online coach’.

But it seems that this decision really didn’t go down well with Ramiz Raja and he came up with a very hard stance on the same.

“I think this has been massively mishandled because this concept won’t work. This is an ego-driven decision because they don’t want to accept what the previous board has done. You are allowed to formulate your own strategy, but that doesn’t mean that you belittle local coaches and stars,” said Ramiz Raja in a video on his YouTube channel.

“I think this is futile and will massively backfire,” he added later.

He has very strong views on certain things - Ramiz Raja on Babar Azam

Later on, the former World Cup winner batter also expressed his concern if the authorities discussing all these things with the skipper Babar Azam. He also hoped that the 28-year-old can’t get easily agree to these kinds of decisions.

“I don’t know whether he has talked about this, but Babar Azam, despite being easygoing, has very strong views on certain things. I hope he was consulted before such a step was taken,” said the 60-year-old.

Earlier, it was former skipper Misbah ul Haq who lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board for making a mockery of the cricketing system of the country.

"It's a slap on our cricket system that we are not able to find a high-profile full-time coach. It's a shame that the best ones do not want to come and we insist on having someone who is looking at Pakistan as a second option,” said Misbah to ESPNcricinfo.