Arthur was assured of two-year extension after World Cup but PM Imran rejected it: Sources

Former Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur was assured by an influential group of cricketers that he would be retained for another two years after the World Cup but Prime Minister Imran Khan rejected giving extensions to the coaching staff.

According to a highly reliable source, an influential member of the Pakistan Cricket Board's Cricket Committee and some other officials in the board had assured Arthur he would be getting an extension as head coach despite Pakistan's failure to reach the knockout stage of the World Cup.

"Arthur was very confident after these assurances that is why he came down to Lahore and spent quite a few days in anticipation of an extension but he was also disappointed and shocked when the PCB announced they were not retaining him or the support staff," the source said.

According to the source, PCB chairman Ehsan Mani had spoken to Imran Khan who is patron-in-chief of the PCB on the matter and the former skipper made it clear that a new team management set-up must be brought in after the World Cup.

Arthur also got a shock when the local media started reporting that when he appeared before the cricket committee he had suggested appointing Shadab Khan and Babar Azam as captains for white and red-ball cricket.

Arthur has now apparently conveyed to skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed that he never said anything against him nor did he give any suggestions to the committee on appointing new captains for all formats.

"Arthur has communicated to Sarfaraz that media reports about him talking about changing the captain were not correct," the source said.