Pakistani players revolt to get rid of National Bank coach

A host of Pakistani cricketers, including Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt, revolted against their National Bank team coach Saeed Azad, who eventually lost his job as the management bowed to the players' pressure.

Sources said that former Test player Iqbal Qasim, who heads the sports division of the leading domestic teams, had to step in to diffuse the revolt led by Akmal and Butt.

Sixteen players of the star-studded team had threatened to resign if Azad was not immediately removed.

Azad, a former international batsman, developed differences with the players after accusing some of them of playing for themselves and not the team which lost the national one-day championship final to the Pakistan International Airlines team on Wednesday.

"The players threatened to resign from the bank and leave the team immediately and Qasim had to fly down to Lahore to diffuse the situation which was possible only after Azad was sacked as coach and Qasim temporally took charge of team affairs," one source said.

Incidentally, National Bank reached final amid accusations of having played a fixed match with Lahore to qualify for the semi-finals on better run-rate.

The bank's performance came under scrutiny after they chased down a target of 122 runs in just 6.1 overs against Lahore last week to qualify for the semifinals with Butt hitting 92 from 25 balls.