Sacked for fixing, Ejaz Ahmed junior now appointed coach by PCB

Fired four years ago following allegations of match-fixing, Ejaz Ahmed junior has been controversially appointed head coach of the Pakistan squad for the Asian Emerging Nations Cup, to be held in Karachi and Colombo in December.

The Pakistan Cricket Board's move raised eyebrows but a PCB official insisted Ahmed was already doing coaching in domestic cricket after an inquiry found nothing against him.

The allegations of fixing a domestic T20 match against the former Test player surfaced when Basit Ali, also an ex-Test cricketer, claimed while commentating in a tournament, that Ejaz had told him he had fixed a game while coaching Sialkot.

According to Ali, Ejaz had told him that Sialkot lost a game on purpose to oust another team from the knockout stage of the tournament.

Soon after Ali made the comments, the board fired Ejaz as regional coach and suspended him.

Now, the PCB official said a subsequent inquiry had found no evidence of fixing against Ejaz, who played two Tests and as many ODIs during a very brief international stint in the 90s.

"The board resumed giving coaching assignments of junior teams in domestic cricket to Ejaz two years back," he said.

The Pakistan team will be playing against Bangladesh, UAE and Hong Kong in the Karachi leg of the tournament from December 6 while India, Sri Lanka, Oman and Afghanistan play their matches in Colombo.

The Asian Cricket Council had to reschedule he tournament and organise it at two venues after India refused to tour Pakistan.

The semi-finals and final will be played in Colombo.

The Pakistani selectors have announced that discarded wicketkeeper-batsman, Muhammad Rizwan, will lead the squad which is a mixture of some seasoned players who have played for Pakistan and the top young performers of domestic cricket.

Pakistan Emerging squad: Sahibzada Farhan, Zeeshan Malik, Ali Imran, Hussain Talat, Saad Ali, Khushdil Shah, Saud Shakil, Muhammad Rizwan (captain, wicketkeeper), Ashiq Ali, Muhammad Asghar, Ghulam Mudassar, Sameen Gul, Musa Khan, Muhammad Ilyas, Suleman Shafqat.