KARACHI, June 16: Javed Miandad paid a heavy price for Pakistan's maiden home defeat against India in the recent series when he was sacked on Wednesday as national coach and replaced by a foreigner, Bob Woolmer, the former South African coach.

Shaharyar M. Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), told a press conference that in order to raise the performance of national team, it was decided to hire Woolmer in place of Miandad.

"Miandad's contract with the PCB has been terminated with immediate effect. At the same time, we have managed to convince Bob Woolmer to take over as new coach," the PCB chief announced.

"However, we offered Miandad to serve PCB as national adviser on cricket developments by taking charge of the national and regional academies. But unfortunately, he, for personal reasons, has refused to take up this assignment," he added.

Woolmer, scheduled to arrive in Lahore on July 2, will take charge of the Pakistan team for next month's Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. Shaharyar also said that the terms of Miandad's contract were being fully respected.

Miandad's third term as coach was to due to expire next April, but his sacking has come just five days after his 47th birthday. The former Pakistan captain, arguably one of the modern day batting greats' was first appointed for the job in August 1998 but was forced to quit after differences with Wasim Akram and some other senior players arose, shortly before the 1999 World Cup in England.

Miandad was then reappointed coach in March 2000 but was booted out after the acrimonious tour of New Zealand in April 2001. But after Pakistan failed to progress beyond the preliminary round of the 2003 World Cup in southern Africa, Miandad was once again called in to rebuild the team.

Shaharyar described Woolmer's appointment as 'a step in the right direction'. "He is a pioneer in advanced coaching methods and guided both Warwickshire (the English county side) and South Africa to leading positions.

"We opted for him after examining the panel of ICC coaches after consultation with the ICC." The PCB chairman ducked the question when he was asked to give details of Woolmer's contract but remarked: "His terms of contract have been agreed and emoluments would be approximately the same as those paid to Miandad in his contract, if anything slightly less."

It is irony that Woolmer had in 2000 rejected an offer to become Pakistan coach. But Shaharyar praised the Englishman who now lives permanently in South Africa. "Mind you, it is not easy task to have a coach of Woolmer's calibre and there cannot be a better nominee than him . We have asked him to take up the job until the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

"We are optimistic he will bring about a positive change both in the attitude and the performance of the Pakistan team," Shaharyar hoped. It's is just hard to imagine that Miandad, who was reportedly being paid Rs800,000 a month, would cost PCB, easily the country's richest sports organization, less in acquiring the services of Woolmer.

Woolmer, the 56-year-old born in the Indian city of Kanpur played 19 Tests and six One-day Internationals for England in the 1970s before becoming a successful coach of Warwickshire, winning a couple of County Championship titles and a few one-day trophies in the 1990s.

Between 1994 and 1999, Woolmer, the current ICC's high performance manager, remained national coach of South Africa taking them through semifinal against eventual champions Australia in the 1999 World Cup.

PCB's crave for hiring foreign officials has led to the appointment of Andy Gray, a South African, as a fitness trainer. His terms of contract was not spelt out. Greg Chappell, the ex-Australian skipper, and the South African great Barry Richards will be doing four-week stints intermittently as batting coaches at the National Cricket Academy shortly, while Daryl Foster, the Australian bowling coach, is slated to arrive in Lahore next week.

Ramiz Raja, the PCB's chief executive, claimed on Wednesday that Chappell and Richards will be each paid less than $1000 per day and Foster around $500 per day for their services.