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Islamabad - The Pakistan Cricket Board appointed former Test captain and fast bowler Waqar Younis as the new coach of the national team.
The 40-year-old Younis will replace Intikhab Alam.
PCB chairperson Ijaz Butt said on Saturday that Younis has been given a contract until Dec. 2011 and will be paid a monthly salary of 650 000 rupees ($7 650). He said Wasim Akram, another former Test paceman, was also considered for the coaching job.
"We had a choice in between Younis and Wasim Akram, but since Akram was busy with his commitments in media we decided to appoint Younis as the new coach," Butt said, adding that former test batsman Ejaz Ahmed will assist Younis as fielding and batting coach.
The PCB had been looking for a new coach since Australia beat Pakistan 3-0 in the test series and 5-0 in the one-day series in January.
Younis, who formed a lethal pace combination with Akram in the 90s, lives in Sydney and will be coming to Pakistan next week to take up his new assignment.
He has previously served as bowling coach with the national team in 2007 and then on the tour of Australia earlier this year.
Younis took 373 wickets in 87 Test matches and 416 scalps in 262 one-day internationals before retiring in 2003. He also led Pakistan in 17 Test matches and 62 ODIs.
Butt said he had considered bringing in a coach from abroad, but that all the candidates were too expensive and unwilling to live in Pakistan.
"Foreign coaches were demanding big money and were willing to work with our team only when its touring some other country," Butt said. "This was not acceptable to us."
Former coach Alam, who took over in October 2008 from Geoff Lawson, has been appointed as director cricket academies and Butt said the former Test spinner will groom youngsters in cricket academies at Lahore and Karachi.
"Soon we will have two more academies in Multan and Islamabad and Alam's services will be utilised in all these four academies," Butt said.
