September 22, 2008	Monday	Ramazan 21, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 21: Former Pakistan cricket captain Inzamam-ul-Haq also added his voice to the chorus of other Test cricketers demanding the patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to appoint a former Test cricketer as its new chairman.

Speaking to the media at the Model Town Club ground where Inzamam and other players were attending the Lahore Badshah training camp for the next season of the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL), Inzamam said the patron (President Asif Ali Zardari) should appoint a seasoned Test cricketer with administrative qualities and not a person who simply aspired for the post without having any past links with the board.

Such a decision in the past had damaged national cricket, Inzamam contended.

The former captain hailed Cricket Sri Lanka’s decision of allowing its ICL’s affiliated players to play domestic cricket.

“The PCB should also take the same bold step to allow Pakistani players who are playing for the ICL to play in domestic cricket,” he said.

“I wonder when the PCB has not been earning any money from the Indian Premier League (IPL) profits, then why is the board preferring IPL over ICL,” he asked.

The ICL had been established without the permission of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as well as the International Cricket Council (ICC). To fail the ICL, the BCCI introduced its own league for which all Test playing countries came to its support while imposing a ban on those cricketers who would join the ICL.

However, Sri Lanka Cricket was first to decide to remove the ban last week.