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| April 30, 2003 | Wednesday | Safar 27, 1424 |
PCB’s strange selection policy
LAHORE, April 29: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) seems to have started a campaign to create a feeling of despair among new talent who are supposed to be groomed for the future.
This was evident as four changes were made to the squad which won the Sharjah Cup recently.
Misbah-ul-Haq, Naved Latif, Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan and Mohammad Zahid all toured Sharjah but were axed in different ways. Zahid and Naved were sidelined when 21 probables for the training camp were announced after holding meaningless trial matches in Lahore.
Then Misbah and Rana Naveed were dropped when the final squad was picked on Tuesday.
Former Test captain Aamir Sohail, who now heads the five-man selection committee, has now opted to go against his policy of giving several chances to every cricketer.
The omission of Misbah, in particular, came as a great surprise since he had only one opportunity to prove his worth during Sharjah Cup when he scored 42 against Kenya.
Meanwhile, poor communication between PCB hierarchy and the national selection committee created confusion and chaos.
The PCB’s media department issued a press release at 12.54pm in which it was stated that the squad will be announced by selection committee at a press briefing at 11.30am on Wednesday. But the same department then issued another press release at 17.52pm regarding the announcement of the squad and the tri-series itinerary, while mentioning Wednesday’s scheduled press conference.
It was learnt that the decision had to be taken as PCB Chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia exercised his “supreme power” and announced the squad in Islamabad, thus forcing the media department to issue a press release here.
It was the third time in recent weeks when the selectors were taken for a ride by PCB’s top brass. First opener Saleem Elahi was named in the Sharjah Cup squad. But PCB dropped Saleem on the pretext that the hosts were not allowing a 16th player in the squad.
Then the selection committee had included Moin Khan, who is consistently scoring in domestic cricket, and Inzamam-ul-Haq in the final list of probables for the training camp. But the chairman cut short the list to 21 by deleting the names of Moin and Inzamam.
And finally, the chairman acted on his own to announce the squad himself without asking for factual details from the hapless selection committee.
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