Last Updated:February 24, 2025, 19:30 IST

PCB plans to sack interim head coach Aaqib Javed and his staff after the 2025 Champions Trophy due to poor performance. Chairman Mohsin Naqvi will also discuss the future of the selection committee.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is reportedly set to sack the interim men’s cricket head coach Aaqib Javed-led and his support staff after the ongoing 2025 Champions Trophy.

The coaching set-up will take the fall for the team’s back-to-back defeats to New Zealand and India in the group stage, which has meant that Pakistan is dependent on other participants’ results to have a shot at qualifying for the semi-finals. According to a PTI report, which cited a PCB source, Chairman Mohsin Naqvi will also speak with the Board of Governors on whether to retain the national selection committee or not.

“Obviously there is backlash over the team’s performance in the CT. The Board hasn’t decided as yet on whether the team will have separate head coaches (for red and white ball teams) but one thing is certain the current support staff will be overhauled now after the poor show in the Champions Trophy,” the news agency quoted the PCB source as saying. “But the way the Board has been changing coaches and selectors since last year, it will be a challenge to find other candidates for these positions,” he added.

A group stage exit in the first ICC tournament hosted by the country since 1996 would come as a major embarrassment for the team, the board and the country. The two losses have not been narrow either. New Zealand beat them by 60 runs in the tournament opener and India outplayed them by a margin of six wickets.

Naqvi appointed Aaqib as the interim head coach of the white ball team in late 2024 after Gary Kirsten resigned. Then, Australian Jason Gillispie also left his role as the red-ball coach and Aaqib was asked to take over that position temporarily too.

The source added that the PCB couldn’t appoint permanent coaches in the leadup to the tournament because it was preoccupied with the preparations for the Champions Trophy. Now, this will take priority ahead of Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand from March 16 to April 5 for five T20 Internationals and three ODIs.

“The PCB, after the way Kirsten and Gillispie resigned, is not going to get a choice of field when it comes to foreign coaches, so most probably the PCB will look at former players for the job,” the source said.