Pakistan former coach Waqar Younis said on Thursday that his successor should be someone from Pakistan and that a selection role should also be given to him. "I think it is ideal to have a local coach for many reasons.

A Pakistani coach actually understands the nature and mental approach of the players, and has a stronger understanding of the system. If I had a successful stint with Pakistan it was only because I came up through the system and hence understand it quite well," Waqar said.

The PCB is yet to appoint a permanent replacement for Waqar with Mohsin Khan being appointed interim coach for the series against Sri Lanka in the UAE.   He said it was important that the new coach was given a selection role for the team to progress.

"What's the definition of coach for a national team? The coach must have a role in selecting the best team to work with and hand over to the captain in the field. Pakistan needs to have a clear selection role for their coach. After all, you need to have someone responsible for results and interestingly it's always the coach who gets sacked if results are not good.

"Pakistan are headed in the right direction. They are doing a wonderful job and they could have won the first Test but failed to finish well. You can't just criticise them for that because they had dominated the opponent for most of the game." Waqar announced his resignation just before the Zimbabwe tour citing health reasons and has since joined the commentary team for the ongoing Test series in the UAE.

"I am undergoing a treatment that comes with a precaution to avoid pressure and exhausting field work, which I would have been doing as coach. It's working fine so far and I hope things will be better in near future."

Talking about the friction between Waqar and Shahid Afridi during the trip, he said, "I never had a personal problem with Afridi but I believe it wasn't fair to Pakistan cricket the way he acted, but these are his decisions and his way of handling things. It actually left a negative impact on the minds of the young players in the country and is not a good example for the upcoming players.

"There must be sufficient criteria for his return to the national setup. It should be ensured that he has played enough cricket recently and has done enough to be recalled," he concluded.