Former Pakistan Test captain Rameez Raja has backed the decision to remove Mohsin Khan as the chief coach of the national team and made some scathing remarks about him on his twitter page.
Rameez said, ‘when a person is not capable of even walking straight under the influence of liquor the Pakistan cricket Board took the right decision to remove him’
Rameez’s hard hitting remarks came after Mohsin appearing on the Geo super channel and claimed that Rameez was behind the move to oust him as coach despite his successful record.
Mohsin also claimed that Rameez had influenced the PCB Chairman to appoint Australian Dav Whatmore as coach in his place.
Rameez though said that he had no role to play in the PCB decision to bring in Whatmore.
“Mohsin was removed because of his own actions. The decision to remove him was totally that of the PCB and I had no role to play in this,” he clarified.
Interestingly, Rameez was an advisor to the committee appointed by the board to scout and recommend a new coach.
The committee that included former Test players Intikhab Alam, Zaheer Abbas and Colonel (retd) Naushad Ali after a long delay eventually recommended Whatmore for the job although insiders say Rameez also had a big role to play in this.
Mohsin was removed as interim coach after leading Pakistan to series wins over Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and a historic whitewash of England in the Test series earlier this year.
Whatmore’s initial foray into Pakistan cricket has not been so successful as after a tight Asia Cup title win, Pakistan has drawn a T20 series and lost the ODI series in Sri Lanka and were also humbled in the first Test in Galle.
Well informed sources say it is no secret that even Rameez was PCB CEO in 2004 he had played a crucial role in convincing the then Chairman Shaharyar Khan to sack Javed Miandad as coach and hire the late Bob Woolmer.
When contacted for his reaction to the remarks made by Rameez, Mohsin said results that he produced as coach and before that as chief selector speak volumes for his performance.
“If I couldn’t walk straight, I wonder how the Pakistan team rallied behind me and we managed to whitewash the world’s number one Test side,” he said.
Ironically when Rameez made his Pakistan debut he opened the innings with Mohsin a couple of times.
