Kingston: West Indian great Viv Richards on Wednesday said that Javed Miandad may be the right candidate to take over as the next coach of Pakistan.

Richards said after Bob Woolmer’s death, former Pakistan captain Miandad should take the responsibility as he was a passionate follower of the game.

“He could do the job, purely because of his love and passion for Pakistan cricket,” Richards told the BBC. “Every time I have met him, I have been impressed by his desire to see a successful Pakistan team,” he said.

Richards said he failed to understand “how a team containing high quality players”, like Younis Khan, Mohammed Yousuf, Mohammed Asif and Shoaib Akhtar have failed to win more regularly.

“This is a group of players who have not played to their ability, for whatever reason. It needs someone to go in there and bring out those talents on a consistent basis.

“Javed has seen and done pretty much everything in the game and is a strong character. No one knows more about Pakistani cricket than he does.

“I know it didn’t work out for him last time but maybe there were factors in play that time that might not be this time,” he said.

“The only other person who has managed to get hold of that team and shape them into a fighting unit was Imran Khan and he could also be an option,” he said.

Richards said he has “an open mind” about coaching himself and would not rule out moving into coaching himself. “It does appeal to me, but I have a particular idea of the way things should be done.

“A lot of things will have to be done in a certain way and there would have to be a lot of independence for me before I could think about coaching in the Caribbean or anywhere else,” he said.