April 19, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 01, 1428

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KARACHI, April 18: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday announced former Test player Salahuddin Ahmed alias Sallu as the chairman of its first-ever three-member ‘professional’ national selection committee for a two-year term.

Salahuddin, who has served as either member or chief selector on 13 previous occasions between 1979 and 1999, is joined on the new panel by ex-Test fast bowler Saleem Jaffar and Shafqat Rana, another former Test cricketer who has also been a national selector previously.

The nomination of Salahuddin, 60, was widely tipped once the Wasim Bari-led selection committee, which ‘resigned’ following Pakistan’s first-round exit at the ongoing World Cup in the West Indies. Although the tenure of Bari and his fellow selectors – Iqbal Qasim and Ehteshamuddin – stood null and void after they picked the World Cup squad.

It seems that currently the PCB’s favourite alphabet is ‘S’. Apart from naming Salahuddin, Saleem and the 63-year-old Shafqat as selectors, the PCB is scheduled to unveil all-rounder Shoaib Malik as the new Pakistan captain shortly.

Meanwhile, the PCB has finalised a new selection policy in the wake of alleged domination of Inzamam-ul-Haq, who during his captaincy days reportedly undermined the working of the Bari-led selection committee.

Now the selectors will be empowered to pick the final XI during a home series after consultation with the captain. For the away series, the selection committee will consult the skipper before finalising the squad. The selection of final XI in the away series will be decided by a tour selection committee which would comprise captain, vice-captain, coach and the manager.

It appears that the PCB has also done away with the policy of having a selector travelling with the team overseas, as was the case when the previous panel was operating.

The Salahuddin-led committee will also be responsible for choosing Pakistan ‘A’ squad while another panel is expected to be named to select the junior teams.

Compared to the outgoing committee, the new selection panel has a collective experience of mere 24 Tests during their playing time.

Apart from appearing in 14 Tests between 1986 and 1992, first-time selector Saleem, 44, has played 39 One-day Internationals while Salahuddin and Shafqat played five Tests each at the time when ODI cricket was not even born. Their first-class appearances totalled 299 matches with Salahuddin playing 111, Shafqat 107 and Saleem 81.

The outgoing committee, in contrast, had rich playing experience with collective figures of 136 Tests (Bari 81, Iqbal Qasim 50 and Ehteshamuddin 5), 66 ODIs (Bari 51 and Iqbal Qasim 15) and 666 first-class matches (Bari 286, Iqbal Qasim 246 and Ehteshamuddin 134).