October 30, 2006	Monday	Shawwal 6, 1427

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LAHORE, Oct 29: The Senate Standing Committee on Sports will grill the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials on Monday on certain issues that have afflicted national cricket in the last couple of months.

The meeting is scheduled to be held at the Parliament House in Islamabad.

Senator Enver Baig, a member of the committee, told Dawn on Sunday the board officials would face questions on issues including non-implementation of the PCB constitution for the last seven years, the Oval Test fiasco, the performance of the national selection committee, Younis Khan’s abrupt decision of refusing the captaincy and then withdrawing the decision two days laters and Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer's failure to find a reliable opening pair.

Enver said he did not know who would represent the PCB at the meeting.

He said the main focus of the meeting would be on the implementation of the constitution because it was the root cause of all problems relating to the PCB.

PCB Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf has announced that the new constitution would be sent to the PCB patron president General Pervez Musharraf by Nov 1 and that it would be implemented soon after getting the PCB Patron-in-Chief’s approval.

When queried that since certain questions were related to the last PCB chairman Shaharyar M. Khan, how did he expect an accurate and precise answer from the new chairman, the senator replied that the new head of the board had been very much involved in the Oval Test fiasco and other matters.

“He (Nasim) was the man who made a contact between the president General Pervez Musharraf and Inzamam-ul-Haq during the Oval Test when the controversy began,” the senator said.

He said though the issue of positive dope test of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif was not on the agenda, but he would try to raise it with the permission of chairman of the Senate committee Zafar Iqbal Chaudhary.

He said the Pakistan’s most popular sport had been hit by a number of crises and the nation has the right to know the factual position.