Elite foreign coaches to work in domestic cricket season.

LAHORE -- Six foreign coaches including two former England international cricketers will work in the domestic season 2022-23 - which includes premier Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2022-23 starting later next week. The event schedule and squads will be announced in due course. England's former international Paul Franks who has worked as assistant head coach at Nottinghamshire county in the English circuit and possesses a coaching experience of about 10 years will coach Central Punjab. Another former international, wicketkeeper-batter Paul Nixon who had coached Jamaican Tallawahs to two Caribbean Premier League titles will be head coach of Sindh - who recently won National T20 2022-23 - their maiden T20 title since the inception of new domestic system.

Nixon is currently working as head coach of the Leicestershire County cricket, he will be relinquishing the role in the coming days before traveling to Pakistan to take up the new assignment. Along with these two head coaches, four foreign coaches - Bilal Shafayat (Central Punjab), John Sadler (Sindh) will be fielding coaches and Richard Stonier (Central Punjab), Ian Fisher (Sindh) will be strength and conditioning coaches. Director High Performance, Nadeem Khan said here on Sunday : 'The introduction of foreign coaches in the domestic cricket is aimed at creating diversity. Whenever you bring coaches from different countries you introduce diversity and new ideas.

These experienced foreign coaches working with the local coaches will ultimately help in the growth of the players. 'We are also bringing fielding and strength and conditioning coaches in the setup. This will benefit our local coaches and will bring more competitiveness in both departments of the game. The players will eventually benefit from them. 'These coaches will work in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and Pakistan Cup tournaments. Initially we have brought the two head coaches with Central Punjab and Sindh to see how it works in our setup and how much it proves to be beneficial for the players. We will assess the performances at the end of the season.' Central Punjab head coach, Paul Franks said :

'We have got exciting talent all around. I am looking forward to seeing everybody. I love coaching and I really enjoy coaching for the right reasons. It's all about the players and I am really excited about the next few months here in Pakistan.

'I have been to Pakistan before; I came with England U19 in the late 1990s. Then I was a very young man making...