Hiring: Pakistan posts coach job on LinkedIn, gets hilarious responses

Pakistan Cricket Board is back in the limelight. The day after sacking head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul and sending seven players home after England’s heavy defeat at Lord’s, the PCB found another way to take center stage.

This time it was LinkedIn.

The board has advertised for a fielding coach for the Pakistan men’s national team, calling for candidates with a Level II cricket coaching qualification and at least five years’ experience in a similar role with elite players, national teams or franchise sides. Both red and white ball cricket covers the vacancy.

On any other day, a cricket board advertising a coaching vacancy would hardly qualify as news. But Pakistan cricket has no ordinary week.

“Looks like the shortlisting of PCB CVs has expired so they had to post just to make the recruitment process look merit-based,” wrote one social media user. Screengrab from Linkedin

Then there were those who mocked the quality of playing in Pakistan cricket.

“Just asking who knows (I’ve worked in industrial automation for the last 13 years),” user X wrote.

“#Interesting. Dropped 2 catches recently,” wrote another.

And then came the simplest summary of the mood.

“Pakistan cricket really is the gift that keeps on giving isn’t it?”

One of the bios shared in response was a parody app full of digs at Pakistan’s woes in the field, which listed “post-drop facial expression management” among its skills and even tracked “excuses per drop” as a key metric.

The fictitious applicant, Takla Ali Hazari, also promised expertise in turning “average hands into safe hands” and managing players “after out-of-place sitters”. A parody biography of a pretender orbiting X

The timing of the ad made the post even more compelling.

Pakistan had just lost the second Test at Lord’s by 194 runs and trailed 0-2 in the three-match series in England. The defeat followed an innings and 103-run loss in the opening Test, meaning Pakistan failed to score more than 200 in any of their four innings in the series. Their performance was also under scrutiny during the tour.

The circuit board responded by pressing the reset button, except that there was one more test left.

Seven players were sent home, including Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha, while five uncapped players were brought into the squad alongside Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal. Sarfaraz was removed as head coach and replaced by white-ball coach Mike Hesson, while Umar Gul was replaced by Ashley Noffke.

It was a dramatic response to a disastrous streak that immediately raised questions about planning and accountability. Former Pakistani players and coaches criticized the extent and timing of the overhaul, with former captain Ramiz Raja describing it as a “panic button” response.

Misbah-ul-Haq, who was part of the selection committee, he also offered his resignation after extensive changes.

The irony, of course, is that the vacancy itself is not unusual. Pakistan have been without a full-time coach since Shane McDermott resigned from the role in July. The PCB is simply trying to fill an important position and the ad sets fairly standard professional requirements for the job of an international coach. But in Pakistan cricket, timing is everything.

A job ad can normally disappear into the endless scroll of LinkedIn. Instead, it arrived in the middle of a Test tour that had already seen the coach removed, seven players sent home and a new-look squad assembled for the match that begins on September 9. No wonder the internet took notice.

“Why are you putting it here?” one user joked. “Just directly call some retired soldiers or army personnel for the job.

Another asked with the same sarcasm: “I’m shocked! Is hiring for PCB posts purely based on merit? Does it not recommend or affect the job?”

Meanwhile, Pakistan cricket has a Test match to look forward to. The third Test at Edgbaston offers the team a chance to avoid a series fade and perhaps provide some substance to a shock-dominated week.

For now, however, the PCB’s search for a fielding coach has become the latest episode in a tour that seems determined to produce headlines long before the next ball is bowled.

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

02 Sep 2026 16:06 IST