The recent exit of Welshman Roger Coombs has left room for a Pakistani to take over as coach and PRU President Fawzi Khwaja believes that apart from promoting their own people, this would be a better use of their resources as the extra money can now be utilised for developmental projects.
“Hiring a foreign coach takes a lot of money,” Khwaja told The Express Tribune. “We have to take care of everything, from their travel, to accommodation and ensure their safety as well, so it costs us quite a bit. But now we’ve decided to have our local coaches visit other countries and learn from there.”
Khwaja said that Shakeel Ahmed is a good example of someone they were looking to groom. Ahmed, who is also a player, has now shifted his focus towards coaching. “We have Ahmed working with different teams in New Zealand, where he is working with top sides in New Zealand as assistant coach. This will help us because he will be returning in February and help coach our players and also be a part of our developmental programmes.”
The PRU chief further said that rugby has been growing in the country, and the projects Coombs left behind are being continued by the union. “We are continuing on the work Coombs did for us,” he stated. “We also have our women’s wing and things will get better from here. We have a programme called ‘Get into Rugby’ (GIR), in which women are coming forward and playing for local teams. We’ll be allocating more resources to women’s rugby in 2015.”
He also mentioned that grassroot programmes were also in place.
According to the PRU, so far 2,225 boys and 978 girls have participated in the GIR programne since 2013.
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