Mickey Arthur, Grant Bradburn, Andrew Puttick Offer Resignation From PCB's NCA Positions

Mickey Arthur, Grant Bradburn, and Andrew Puttick, who were placed in the position of director, head coach, and batting coach have resigned from their position. The Pakistan Cricket Board informed about the development and issued a press release for the same. Arthur and Puttick were replaced by former Pakistan batsman Mohammad Hafeez and he is the new director and head of Pakistan men’s cricket team.

Mickey Arthur was appointed as the director of the Pakistan cricket team in April last year whereas Grant Bradburn became the head coach of the team at the start of 2023. Arthur also had a successful stint with Pakistan as the head coach and helped them win the Champions Trophy in 2017.

Mickey Arthur, Grant Bradburn and Andrew Puttick resign from their positions in Pakistan cricket team 

The press release read, “Mickey Arthur, Grant Bradburn and Andrew Puttick, who were assigned duties at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore after a change in their portfolios in November 2023, have resigned from their respective positions.”

“In April 2023, Arthur was appointed Director of the Pakistan men’s cricket team while Bradburn was announced head coach of the Pakistan national men’s side earlier last year. Former South Africa cricketer Puttick was Pakistan’s batting coach since April 2023.”

“All three individuals informed the Pakistan Cricket Board of their decision to leave their respective jobs by the end of January 2024. The decision was taken amicably between all the stakeholders. The PCB wishes them well in their future endeavours and is grateful for their services.”

The Pakistan cricket team went through a poor performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup and Asia Cup 2023. Pakistan were not able to qualify for the knockouts of the CWC 2023 and finished 5th with 4 wins from 9 games. Pakistan faced a lot of trouble against big teams such as India, Australia, and England whereas they were only able to beat low-ranked teams such as Sri Lanka, Netherlands, and Bangladesh. Pakistan also faced a setback and faced a loss at the hands of Afghanistan.

The Asia Cup 2023 was not a wonderful stint for Pakistan as they faced humiliating losses against India and Sri Lanka and were knocked out from the Super 4s stage of the tournament.

Also, the pace battery which was Pakistan’s strength at some point had become their weakness. Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi went for a lot of runs during the ODI World Cup 2023 and failed to leave any impact.

However, the biggest problem with Pakistan was the non-performance of former captain Babar Azam. Babar was not able to bat as per his reputation and failed to score runs in the ODI World Cup and the Asia Cup. Babar, who is currently the number one ODI batsman also resigned from the captaincy of the Pakistani team after the 2023 ODI World Cup.

There was a huge change in the Pakistani management as Wahab Riaz was appointed as the chief selector of the men’s cricket team whereas Shan Masood and Shaheen Shah Afridi became the captains in the Test and T20I format respectively.

Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal joined Pakistan along with Mohammad Hafeez as the seam and spin bowling coach. However, it doesn’t look like the fortunes have changed for Pakistan as they faced a humiliating loss in the Test series against Australia and have also lost the first three T20Is out of a five-match series against New Zealand.