Luke Ronchi blatantly accuses PCB of spreading lies about him joining Pakistan team as their Head Coach

Former Australia and New Zealand wicket-keeper batsman Luke Ronchi has reportedly become the latest to reject the offer from the Pakistan Cricket Board to take over as National team head coach. Ronchi, who has worked with the Kiwi national side as the wicket-keeping coach, was heavily linked to finally end PCB’s search for a new coach after Shane Watson and Darren Sammy had rejected the offer.

It was reported yesterday that Luke Ronchi is the favorite to join as Pakistan’s new head coach and it was also said that negotiations are at an advanced stage. However, a new report has come from a Pakistani journalist earlier today that Ronchi is not signing the contract just yet. That means all the hype and talks around the former wicket-keeper batsman joining the Green Army will pause as of now.

This proves to be an added tension for the PCB who have been looking for a head coach for the last 2 months now. They were hopeful of bringing Shane Watson on board earlier this month before the Australian rejected due to leakage of information as well as other commitments. Darren Sammy, who was head coaching Peshawar Zalmi in PSL 9, had also declined the offer due to his contract as West Indies’ white-ball coach.

Will Pakistan go to the T20 World Cup without a head coach?

With less than 3 months remaining for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies, Pakistan is facing a scare of going to the tournament without a head coach in place. That could prove to be disastrous and discouraging, given the fact that they had played extremely well in the previous two T20 WC editions in 2021 and 2022.

Pakistan, who were then under the captaincy of star batter Babar Azam, had gone all the way to the semi-finals of the 2021 edition in UAE where they lost to eventual champions Australia. Then during the 2022 edition at the Land Down Under, the Men in Green made a shocking appearance in the final despite suffering defeats against India and Zimbabwe in the first round.

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However, Babar Azam’s side lost once again, this time to England who emulated West Indies’ feat of being the most successful team in the tournament. But since then, Pakistan’s performance has remained questionable, especially on foreign grounds and therefore, they must aim to sign Luke Ronchi and hope that he can guide the team to new heights.

If not Ronchi, then they must find a good alternative but the most important thing is that PCB should give assurance to whoever they appoint that their contract will not be terminated with a snap.

Pakistan’s schedule for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies