Pakistan Cricket Board chief Zaka Ashraf feels theappointment of a batting coach for the national team has become a challengingtask given the interest shown by some of the country's stalwarts in the job.
"It will be a demanding process now to take a decisionon who will be Pakistan's batting coach," he said.
Ashraf's remarks came hours after Pakistan's former captainand most-capped player Inzamam-ul-Haq also expressed his interest in theposition.
"If the board makes me an offer I will definitely giveit serious consideration. Because I would love to help our the batsmen improvetheir game," Inzamam told reporters in his hometown Multan.
Before Inzamam, former batting greats Zaheer Abbas and SalimMalik had also expressed their interest in the job. While Malik, who was bannedfor life for his role in the match fixing scandal in 2000, has formally appliedfor the job, Zaheer who is a member of the coaching committee said he waswilling to step down to become batting coach of the national team.
The PCB had set a deadline of November 5 for interestedcandidates from within the country and abroad to apply for the position whichis expected to be finalised this month.
The coaching committee is expected to meet this week toshortlist candidates and recommend their names to the board Chairman andexecutive coordination committee for approval.
A reliable source said some foreigners with coachingcredentials had also applied for the position.
"While Inzamam, Zaheer and Malik are no doubt big namesin Pakistan cricket they are problems with their eligibility as none of themhave done the level three coaching nor have experience of working with an eliteplayer or team which is the requirement set by the board," the sourcesaid.
He pointed out that they were also problems with Malik'seligibility as it was still unclear whether the ICC would allow him to be givenany official coaching position with the national team.
"And it is still not clear whether his ban was been setaside by any court of law," the source added.
He, however, admitted that Zaheer was a prime candidate forthe position despite his qualification problems as he had previously workedwith the national team as manager and was well respected by the players and inthe cricket community.
Inzamam also told the media that the board had done theright thing by deciding to appoint a professional batting coach as it was theneed of the times.
"There is no doubt that we need to bring in moreconsistency in our batting and we need someone to groom our younger players andfine tune the seniors when required," he said.