September 23, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 29, 1427

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KARACHI, September 22: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will face an inquiry from the Sports Ministry which has asked it to explain the reasons for the national team's poor performances in England besides the facilities being given to the foreign coach and trainers.

The letter has been written by former Test pacer Sarfaraz Nawaz, who is now on the Ministry's Sports Committee and is known to be a vocal critic of the present dispensation in the PCB.

“We have been told that the ministry wants to hold an inquiry into the team's performance and wants details about our coach and trainers. We have no problems doing that,” PCB's Director Cricket Operations Saleem Altaf said on Friday.

Sarfaraz has been critical of the Board's decision to appoint Bob Woolmer as coach. Woolmer was appointed in 2003 for an undisclosed fee but unofficially it is said to be over 10 million rupees a year with other benefits as well.

The Board has also employed two other foreign trainers, Murray Stevenson and Daryn Lifsun from South Africa and recently named former Test leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed as the team's assistant coach.

Altaf said the Board had only been asked to furnish details to the Ministry. In the past also the Board officials have been summoned several times by the Senate and National Assembly committees on sports and culture with some members making their displeasure with the present set-up very apparent.—Agencies