Now, a top PCB official admitted that ending association with former head coach Arthur was a tough for decision to take. Arthur became head coach of an international team for the third time after he was appointed as head coach of Pakistan cricket team in May 2016.
Arthur had recently given a bold statement on his axing by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), following recommendations made at the review meeting held by PCB cricket committee, in order to shape national squad's future.
“The first question we asked ourselves was whether we were happy to be number seven in Tests and number six in One-dayers. Are we happy that we have been inconsistent over a long period of time?” PCB’s chief executive Wasim Khan said.
“In Mickey’s defence, he did a lot of good things for Pakistan cricket. But we had to make a tough decision, it’s is a new regime, new domestic structure and we needed to be sustainable, have a proper succession plan for our leaders and coaches in Pakistan cricket.”
“We felt they were a number of areas where we still needed to be better at. We platued a bit whether we could get any better or that was not good enough for us we needed to make a fresh start,” he added.
Khan also insisted that Pakistan has revamped its red ball domestic cricket as the ICC Test Championship is important for national side.
“Because red ball cricket matters to us it is the health check of any cricket playing country. ODI and T20 cricket is important I am not demeaning them but Test cricket matters to us.”