Some of the leading coaches involved with domestic U19 and senior teams have been handed the reins of the six Pakistan Junior League teams for the 19-match inaugural season set to be held at Lahore’s Gadaffi Stadium from 6 to 21 October.
The roster includes foreign coaches Gordon Parsons and Toby Radford. Parsons and Radford are two of the five coaches recruited for the PCB Pathway Programme. Radford will be joining the programme this week and will link-up with his PJL team once the event support period begins in the last week of September.
Parsons has been named the head coach of Bahawalpur while Radford will be coaching Rawalpindi in the inaugural season. Pakistan U19 and Shaheens coach Ijaz Ahmed Snr, who is currently coaching Northern in the Kingdom Valley National T20 Cup 2022-23, will head Gujranwala’s coaching staff.
PCB’s spin bowling consultant and Balochistan head coach, Mushtaq Ahmed, will be the head coach of the Gwadar side, while Abdul Razzaq, the Central Punjab head coach, will spearhead Hyderabad support staff.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa head coach Abdur Rehman will be Mardan’s head coach.
Each of the six sides have also been assigned specialised coaches for support of their head coaches.
Former Pakistan Test opener Imran Farhat (currently involved with Central Punjab) will be batting coach at Bahawalpur. Former Test bowler Aizaz Cheema, who is part of the Southern Punjab coaching team, will be the bowling coach for Gujranwala.
PCB coach Kamran Khan currently involved with Northern will be Gwadar’s batting coach and Sindh head coach Ghulam Ali will join Razzaq in the Hyderabad dugout as the batting coach.
Former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Sami would be making his coaching debut with a stint for Mardan as bowling coach.
Seasoned U19 and age-group coach Muhammad Masroor would be Rawalpindi’s batting coach.
The head coaches and assistant coaches will select their PJL squads in the player draft which will be held in Lahore today.
Rest of the support staff for the six teams will be announced in due course.
Bahawalpur:
Mentor – Imran Tahir
Head coach – Gordon Parsons
Batting coach – Imran Farhat
Gujranwala:
Mentor – Shoaib Malik
Head coach – Ijaz Ahmed Snr
Bowling coach – Aizaz Cheema
Gwadar:
Mentor – Vivian Richards
Head coach – Mushtaq Ahmed
Batting coach – Kamran Khan
Hyderabad:
Mentor – Daren Sammy
Head coach – Abdul Razzaq
Batting coach – Ghulam Ali
Mardan:
Mentor – Shahid Afridi
Head coach – Abdur Rehman
Bowling coach – Mohammad Sami
Rawalpindi:
Mentor – Colin Munro
Head coach – Toby Radford
Batting coach – Muhammad Masroor
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