Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has appointed test cricketer Shan Masood as Consultant International Cricketer and Player Affairs, the private media channel reported on Friday.
Chairman PCB Mohsin Naqvi confirmed the selection of a test cricketer during the dinner arranged by the Prime Minister’s office.
The PM office hosted the dinner in recognition of the South African team, wherein Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif participated in the ceremony.
Mohsin Naqvi mentioned that Shan Masood will take up his role as the advisor to the International Cricketer and Players Affairs in the PCB.
Previously, Pakistan captain Shan Masood expressed support for Pakistan’s criticised policy of setting up slow, spin-friendly pitches for home tests, even after it went wrong on Thursday and they lost the second test to South Africa.
Pakistan has intentionally prepared dry and deteriorating pitches for their spin bowlers to gain an advantage in home tests over the last 12 months against England, West Indies, and South Africa – a move that has faced backlash.
But after losing a match by eight wickets to South Africa at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, where giant fans were used to help dry out the pitch, Masood justified the strategy.
“Look, it’s been four wins out of six since we’ve operated on these wickets,” Masood said.
“Obviously, the wickets have got a bit better. They’ve been much more battable. Four out of six isn’t bad considering in the two test matches we’ve lost, we got into winning positions. Had we finished those games off, it could easily have been six out of six.”
“We had a great opportunity to close it out when we had a lead of 98 with two wickets to go, but those last two wickets cost us dearly, putting us under a lot of pressure, and in these conditions, it’s the difference between the first innings that leads into the third and fourth innings, test captain mentioned.
“We have a lot to work on when it comes to lower order batting, when it comes to finishing the innings off, when it comes to the third innings of batting, also when it comes to the first innings where we could have posted something north of 400, but we didn’t,” he added.
