ISLAMABAD , April 19, 2023: Mickey Arthur, former head coach of Pakistan, has reached Pakistan on three-day visit to join the Team Green ahead of T20I matches against New Zealand in Rawalpindi.
Mr Arthur is set to join the team as a director and not, as previously, head coach. He will remain with the Pakistan team until April 20 heading to England, where he serves as the Head of Cricket for Derbyshire.
The PCB wants Arthur to supervise the team in the Asia Cup, ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, and the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Arthur has partially accepted the Pakistan’s offer as he will joining the Pakistan camp periodically as he wants to continue his job with Derbyshire.
Arthur was head coach of the Pakistan side between 2016 and 2019, a generally successful white-ball period that included a Champions Trophy triumph in 2017 and the transformation of their limited-overs sides.
Having languished behind other Full Members after a poor showing at the 2016 T20 World Cup, Arthur helped transform a T20 side under the leadership of Sarfaraz Ahmed and took them to the number one spot in the ICC rankings. There were notable Test results as well, though the red-ball side proved harder to transform. One big, early defeat at the 2019 World Cup meant Pakistan failed narrowly to reach the last four of the event, and Arthur was replaced by Misbah-ul-Haq soon after.
More significantly, Arthur s return will reunite him with several players in whose development he played a key early role in that first stint, not least the captain Babar Azam. Arthur persisted with Babar during a tough initiation into Test cricket and oversaw his white-ball rise. Others such as Sarfaraz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan have also spoken in the past of the impact Arthur has had on their careers. Arthur had a stint with Sri Lanka after the Pakistan job and has since been with Derbyshire.