Pakistan seamer Mohammad Asif: “I was asked to go to Afghanistan for a coaching stint with their young pace bowlers in 2016. However, the security situation meant that I had to decline the offer”
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Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Asif has revealed that he was offered a coaching stint with the Afghanistan team in 2016.
Asif was trying to make his international comeback at the time, but kept on being overlooked by the national selectors.
However, while his role with the Afghanistan team would be to work with the country’s young fast bowlers, Asif turned it down as he was worried about the security situation.
“I wanted to continue playing, but I started to think about alternatives to playing and focussed on coaching and I was asked to go to Afghanistan for a coaching stint with their young pace bowlers in 2016,” he told Wisden as quoted by PakPassion.
“However, the security situation meant that I had to decline the offer which was unfortunate as I was really looking forward to working with those youngsters.”
Asif is renowned for being one of Pakistan’s best swing bowlers, but his international career was cut short when he was banned for his involvement in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal.
Many legendary players, such as England’s Kevin Pietersen and South Africa’s Hashim Amla, have admitted that Asif was the toughest bowler they faced.
Asif took 106 wickets in 23 Tests at an average of 24.36, 46 wickets in 38 ODIs at an average of 33.13 and 13 wickets in 11 T20 Internationals at an average of 26.38.