20 January 2004	Tuesday	27 Ziqa'ad 1424

Going on a World Cup tour as manager is one thing, running Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is quite another as new chairman, Shaharyar M. Khan is quickly finding out.

A drubbing in New Zealand for the national team, the under-17 selection muddle, the resurfacing of the questionable deal with TenSports, the appointment of a retired marketing executive out of nowhere and the announcement of a hand-picked junior selection committee, all in a month's time. Who said being at the helm was easy as pie?

Shaharyar is fast learning what it means to be in the hot seat and what it was like watching from the sidelines. Diplomacy for the former diplomat isn't working in cricket. It is an entirely different ball game.

Ask former chairman Lt Gen (Retd) Tauqir Zia and he would tell you it is no bed of roses. Surely, it isn't. Tauqir's lieutenants brought about his downfall for he chose the wrong ones. But isn't the new man making the same mistakes?

If the junior selection committee headed by former Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim is any indication, then certainly there were individuals better qualified to be on the panel. Merit that Shahryar had so openly been talking about since taking over last month, has indeed taken a backseat. After all, in Pakistan cricket, pressures come from all directions.

Merit got a further battering when the selectors named the under-19 team for next month's Junior World Cup in Bangladesh. They chose Khalid Latif, a poor performer with the bat and named him as the captain. With just 45 runs to show while playing for Allied Bank in the 2003-04 season, Khalid averaged a poor 11.25. In last year's Junior Asia Cup he scored only 16 runs in three innings. Talk of merit? What merit?

Having completed his first month in office, Shaharyar has not done what he had announced publicly on assuming charge that all key posts would be advertised. Instead he has brought in Riaz Mahmood as the marketing consultant.

Riaz retired from the Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) as a marketing director. That is all very well, but his appointment and that of the junior selection committee, only go to show that Shaharyar isn't playing with a straight bat. On an uneven Pakistani wicket, it would be difficult even if the chairman attempted to do so.

Running cricket, especially the Pakistani brand, is tricky business indeed. Tauqir learnt this lesson just too well while Shaharyar is fast discovering that cleaning up the sport he has chosen to run will be as difficult as scaling Everest.

Difficult because when you have people who select their "sons and nephews" on junior teams going abroad, you really have problems at hand. The under-17 party named by chief selector -#Aamir Sohail is the case in point. The suspension of the original team by Shaharyar who ordered a review by an independent selection committee has not done any good to PCB's already tainted image.

But forget the image for now. There is confusion and controversy over PCB's telecasting rights deal with TenSports that was signed last year. The chairman himself seems confused.

Only recently he had said the deal could be reviewed while one of his aides announced earlier that all contracts would be honoured. What's going on, one wonders. Something, somewhere is surely wrong. If this is not so, why can't the details of the contract be made public.

Already much harm has been done to the country's image because of the bitter row between a Dubai-based satellite channel and the state-run Pakistan Television over telecasting rights.

The dispute ahead of the home series against New Zealand last November had led to a blackout of the first one-day International at Lahore. The matter required presidential intervention before the remaining four matches of the series were telecast live much to the relief of fuming fans.

Although the telecast fiasco happened during Tauqir's tenure, the opening overs that Shaharyar has had to face since coming on to the crease last month, have left him clueless. The conditions seem to favour the bowlers!

There is so much for Shaharyar to take care of that it leaves one to wonder how is he going to cope. There's the all important India series now within smelling distance and on its administrative success, his future would largely depend. Also, a lot would be expected from the cricket team, dumped 4-1 by New Zealand this month. Imagine a side that walloped the Black Caps 5-0 at home just over a month ago, losing in a manner it did.

It is a gloomy scenario, made all the more worse by the cracking form the Indians are showing on their tour Down Under. The chairman of selectors has to think long and hard but only if he is allowed to 'live' by his new boss. In Pakistan cricket, they say, you can never be sure.