29 May 2004	Saturday	09 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

LAHORE, May 28: The Pakistan Cricket Board is taking two major steps next week -- making public budget statements of the home series against India and advertising executive posts, Shaharyar M. Khan, the PCB chairman, announced here on Friday.

"Only a bank statement is being awaited and the rest has been prepared to announce the budget statement. I do hope it will be received in the next couple of days and the board will be in a position to announce it after three more days," he said.

He said that the PCB was a public body and he wanted to inform the public about the use of each paisa. Shaharyar said that except for the chief executive's post, the other executive posts would be advertised. But he refused to give details of the posts to be advertised.

"I can't say any word about it at this moment, but I can assure you that chief executive's post is not included", he said. Replying to a question, whether he expressed any reservations about chief executive Ramiz Raja's job as TV commentator during the meeting with President Pervez Musharraf, he said no that matter was not discussed.

Shaharyar said that the city cricket associations would be given a role and that would be determined by the PCB. He said that the board could authorize city cricket associations to select their teams for Inter-district competitions, independently, but not at regional level.

"The board can send a selector or can appoint coach and manager for a regional team," he said. He said that the PCB could not release any grant or share from the gate money to city associations until they returned their audited reports to the board.

"Yes, I believe cricket associations should have their share from the gate money but for that purpose they should submit details of previous budgets", he said. He said that the PCB advisory council would meet here on June 4 to take various decisions viz-a-viz domestic cricket and the reasons for the defeat of the Pakistan team in home series against India.

Shaharyar said that he was leaving for Islamabad to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Sports and Culture on Saturday. However, he said that he had no agenda of the meeting.

The senate committee has summoned PCB officials to explain the reasons for the defeat against India. Shaharyar said that PCB was behind the ICC on the issue of Zimbabwe's Test status, which is in doldrums due to political issues.

He said that he would attend the ICC meeting in June which will take a final decision on Zimbabwe. The PCB would also request the ICC to give Pakistan 'A' team more international exposure.