The 54-year-old will replace Saqlain Mushtaq, whose contract expires next month.
“I am in negotiations with Mickey personally and we have covered 90 percent of the issues,” Najam Sethi, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s management committee, said.
“Hopefully, very soon we may give you the news that Mickey will be joining us,” he told a press conference in Lahore.
Sethi said Arthur will have his own team of support staff. “I think the issues will be solved in the next two to three days and Mickey will come with support staff,” added Sethi.
Under Arthur’s tenure as head coach between 2016 and 2019, Pakistan won the Champions Trophy and became number one in the Twenty20 international rankings. But his contract was not renewed after Pakistan failed to reach the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup.
Arthur is currently serving as head coach of Derbyshire in England on a three-year contract.
He has vast experience, having also coached his native South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan cricket is going through a number of changes after PCB chairman Ramiz Raja was removed last month. Raja was replaced by a 14-member committee led by Sethi who has the backing of PM Shehbaz Sharif.
In Pakistan, the PCB’s Patron-In-Chief is the PM of the country making the appointment of the PCB chief a political one.
Former batsman Haroon Rasheed was also appointed as chief selector, replacing Shahid Afridi, who served on an interim basis for one month. Rasheed played 23 Tests and 12 ODIs for Pakistan between 1977 and 1983.
Apart from his previous role as a selector, has also served as PCB’s director of cricket operations and the Pakistan team manager.
ICC overturns Rawalpindi pitch demerit point on appeal
A demerit point handed to Pakistan’s Rawalpindi pitch was yesterday rescinded following an appeal, a month after it was deemed “below average” during a Test against England. The International Cricket Council said a panel reviewed footage of the match following a challenge by the Pakistan Cricket Board and was unanimous in its decision.“There were several redeeming features - including the fact that a result was achieved following a compelling game, with 37 out of a possible 39 wickets being taken,” the ICC said. “As such, the appeal panel concluded that the wicket did not warrant the ‘below average’ rating.” The lifeless pitch yielded 1,786 runs in the December Test, prompting match referee Andy Pycroft to hand out the penalty. England piled up 657 runs in their first innings, including a world-record opening-day score of 506-4. The tourists won the Test by 74 runs after setting Pakistan a 343-run target. At the time, Pycroft was quoted in an ICC statement saying “it was a very flat pitch which gave almost no assistance to any type of bowler”.
It was the second time the pitch received such a verdict, after 1,187 runs were scored for the loss of just 14 wickets in a tame draw between Pakistan and Australia nine months earlier. ICC rules say that if a venue accumulates five demerits in five years it is suspended from hosting international cricket for 12 months.
