Raja resigns, Pybus replacement

Raja’s resignation from the job has already been accepted by the Board and he will be relieved after the three-nation tourney in Sharjah later this month in which Pakistan is participating, the sources said.

PCB has already decided to bring South African coach Richard Pybus to fill the gap and he is expected to join the team very soon, the sources said.

The former left-handed batsman Raja took over the reins of the team after Mushtaq Mohammed quit at the end of the World Cup. Pybus had been the assistant coach of Pakistani team during the World Cup in England in May/June this year after Javed Miandad resigned barely two weeks before the World Cup in a controversial manner.

Raja had been appointed only on August 10 as the coach of Pakistani team on a long term basis with the ad hoc chairman of PCB Mujeebur Rehman claiming he believes in long term affairs and hinting that Raja may continue till the next World Cup.

Raja, who had been offered a remuneration of 40,000 yearly by PCB for the job, had earlier left his teaching job in england and came back to Pakistan to manage the team which had been embroiled in match-fixing controversy.

But even the very first assignment of Raja proved controversial when the Pakistani authorities appointed wicket-keeper Moin Khan as skipper for the three-match series against the West Indies but then Rehman suddenly lifted the suspension on former skipper Wasim Akram in England and sent him to Toronto from there as the skipper.