Naved-ul-Hasan, Imran Farhat to coach at Afghanistan's high performance centre

Former Pakistan opener Imran Farhat and fast bowler Naved-ul-Hasan are set to join Afghanistan's high performance centre in Kabul as batting and bowling coaches respectively. Both were given year-long contracts in which they will also oversee the 2023 domestic season.

Since the Taliban took over in the country, Afghanistan cricket has revamped its corporate and domestic cricket structure and invested to upgrade the facilities in Kabul to include a high performance centre. Afghanistan has seven domestic tournaments covering all three formats, that run from February to November and both coaches will also be involved in selecting players for the development programme. The national high performance centre is responsible for picking players from the domestic circuit and setting up a pathway to keep them ready for the national teams.

"As part of the ACB's goals for the players and game development in Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Cricket Board is looking forward to welcoming more renowned individuals to its National High Performance Centre," the ACB said in a statement.

Naved had a prominent career for Pakistan from 2003 to 2010, especially in ODIs. His Test career saw just nine matches for 18 wickets, but his 74 ODIs fetched him 110 wickets and his four T20Is saw him bag five wickets. His domestic career was a lot more prolific, playing 156 first-class, 197 one-dayers and 126 T20s for 1095 wickets combined in all three formats. After his playing days, Naved started his own cricket academy in his native city Sheikhupura, in Punjab, and most recently worked in the Pakistan domestic set-up as an assistant coach with Central Punjab's second XI and had a short stint as a bowling consultant with UAE as well.

Similarly, Farhat had a formidable domestic career with nearly 16,000 first-class runs in 230 games, 7572 in 220 one-day innings, and 1636 runs in 69 T20s. His international career lasted 12 years, from 2001 to 2013, for 40 Tests, 58 ODIs and seven T20I. He has been working as a coach after retiring in 2020 with successful stints with Central Punjab's second XI to win titles in all formats last season. He has also been working with domestic Under-19 teams and was the batting coach with Bahawalpur Royal - which won the Pakistan Junior League title.

This isn't the first time the ACB has roped in Pakistan coaches. Inzamam-ul-Haq and Rashid Latif had worked with the Afghanistan team as head coaches. Umar Gul recently completed his one-year contract as bowling coach with the national set-up. Kabir Khan had the longest stint with them and played a significant role to uplift Afghanistan cricket in the early days of development in the country, when he helped them qualify for three T20 World Cups in 2010, 2012 and 2014.