April 11, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22, 1428

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LAHORE, April 10: Team manager Talat Ali put all the blame on batsmen’s miserable performance which led to Pakistan’s disaster at the ongoing World Cup.

“Our batsmen failed to set an imposing total against minnows Ireland besides failing to chase an achievable target too set by the West Indies,” Talat told reporters after giving his statement before the World Cup's Performance Evaluation Committee (PEC) here on Tuesday.

Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, the former PCB chief, also recorded his statement.

Talat said had the batsmen shown their true potential, Pakistan would have been in the Super Eights stage of cricket’s most prestigious event.

He added even the depleted bowling attack, in the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, performed well, adding that was the difference between the batsmen and the bowlers.

Talat neither endorsed nor fully rejected the finding of media manager P.J. Mir, who recently said that the players were more focused on religious activities instead of cricket in the West Indies.

“I would not like to comment on the religious activities but I will say that prayers have their own worth and cricket has its own,” he said.

The manager admitted Pakistan’s preparations for the World Cup were not ideal.

“We went to the West Indies with 13 players and among them Shahid Afridi was not available for the first two matches, due to a ban, therefore, I think it was not an ideal situation for any team to prepare themselves for such a huge contest,” Talat stated.

He disagreed with former Pakistan captain Intikhab Alam’s statement that some unfit players were in the squad when they reached the West Indies.

“I think Intikhab is not in a position to assess the fitness level of any player from thousands of miles away from the squad,” he said.

He also negated the impression that the players were undisciplined while not agreeing with the questioners that the players were involved in match-fixing.

Meanwhile, Tauqir Zia said the controversies over the issue of Shoaib Akhtar and Asif’s positive doping tests created problems during the team’s preparations for the World Cup.

Tauqir expressed some reservations over the team selection but he was not ready to accept that religious activities had played any role in the debacle, however adding the team management would have better knowledge about it.

About new captain, Tauqir suggested, for short-term planning, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi or Shoaib Akhtar as the best choices while for long-term arrangement put forward the names of Shoaib Malik and Salman Butt.

He opined there was a dearth of leadership in the team, adding a junior should be picked to be groomed till the retirement of the senior captain.

There will be no further proceedings in Lahore after the former PCB chairman Shaharyar M. Khan did not confirm his appearance to the PCB. Shaharyar is one of the most important persons involved in the cricketing affairs after he resigned as the PCB chairman just six months before the 2007 World Cup.

When contacted, the chairman PEC, Ijaz Butt told, Dawn that he was willing to ask Shaharyar some questions and invited him to appear on Wednesday.

But the PCB officials, who conveyed Ijaz’s invitation to Shaharyar, informed him that the former chairman was keen to be informed about the questions the committee wanted to ask him. Furthermore, the former chairman said he would only appear on an invitation from the current PCB chief.

“I have no objection if the PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf asks Shaharyar Khan to appear before the committee, since I am more interested in reaching a conclusion based on truth,” he emphasised.

But as there was no confirmation from the PCB about Shaharyar, the committee is now proceeding to Karachi on Wednesday to record statements of the selection committee chairman Wasim Bari, one of its members Iqbal Qasim, and Pakistan’s current and former Test cricketers.

The meeting will also visit Islamabad, before announcing its findings.