November 15, 2003	Saturday	Ramazan 19, 1424

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LAHORE, Nov 14: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s ad hoc chairman, Lt. Gen (Retd) Tauqir Zia has backed controversial chief selector Aamir Sohail in the latter’s spat with coach and captain Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

“Aamir is an aggressive man and a straightforward person and as chief selector his job is to select 16 probables and the final selection is the task of the captain” Tauqir told newsmen.

He praised Aamir for doing good work in the rebuilding process of the team. “Aamir has been given till February to complete this process and let him do his job”, he said.

“If the chief selector runs after his members, captain, coach, PCB chief executive and chairman for their views about the selection it would be a long and cumbersome procedure”, he argued.

Tauqir said that he advised Aamir to include Moin Khan in the list of probables when he heard in England about the former skipper’s omission after the team management was not happy with the performance of Kamran Akmal against Bangladesh.

The PCB chief disclosed that Cricket Australia had offered a proposal to PCB of holding a tri-nation series in England prior to ICC Champions Trophy next year.

“Cricket Australia made the offer to compensate for the losses incurred by PCB while hosting home series against Aussies in Sharjah and Sri Lanka” he added.

Later PCB issued a press release stating that PCB has taken a serious view of the violation of code of conduct by the Pakistan cricket team management and Shoaib Akhtar. PCB, however, did not impose any sanctions on Inzamam, Miandad, Aamir and Shoaib but warned them to abide by code or “pack your bags and go home”.

PCB chairman met the management team comprising Inzamam, Miandad and Haroon Rasheed on Thursday while he discussed the matter with chief selector Aamir on Friday.

“PCB considers this case closed and will not make any further statements on this issue,” a spokesman of the PCB said.

Shoaib was also reprimanded for giving an interview in an Indian and a local Urdu newspaper in which he criticised the ICC and the PCB.

“He has been told in no uncertain terms to refrain from making statements that are against the ICC/PCB policies,” the statement added.

PCB had received an apology and clarification from Shoaib on Friday morning.