September 28, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 27, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: The Federal Sports Ministry on Saturday formed a fifteen-member committee under the chairmanship of Federal Law Minister Farood H. Naek to review and amend the constitution of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) within twenty days.

Federal Minister for Sports Najamuddin Khan told reporters at the Pakistan Sports Complex here that the committee had a mandate to amend board’s constitution and it would look into the factors about limiting the powers of PCB chairman.

He said the selection of the new PCB chairman vested in the president of Pakistan who was also the patron-in-chief of the board.

About some flaws in the present constitution which needed to be removed, he said the committee would continue to function until all the loopholes would be covered.

Earlier, Najamuddin Khan presided over a four-hour-long meeting which was attended by Farooq H. Naek, PCB Chief Operations Officer Shafqat Naghmi, former Test cricketers, regional cricket associations’ heads and sports ministry officials.

The meeting discussed the drawbacks in PCB constitution, ways to evolve domestic cricket and improving the standard of the game in the country.

Farooq Naek said, “The current constitution is dictatorial as all the powers revolve around PCB chairman, therefore I will request the sports minister to form a committee involving all the stake holders to review and amend it.”

“PCB accounts must be audited by the auditor general of Pakistan,” the law minister said in his concluding remarks in the meeting.

Former Test cricketer Majid Khan criticised PCB’s domestic cricket structure and pinpointed its loopholes.

Majid said: “We are competing with the world’s best cricket teams like Australia, England, West Indies, South Africa and India so we need to have a strong domestic cricket set-up.”

“We can only have a good national squad with a better domestic cricket infrastructure,” said the former player.

Another former player and Asian Bradman, Zaheer Abbas, suggested that night cricket should be banned because of security reasons.

Zaheer added that former Test cricketers should be part of the board.

Former Test opener Mohsin Khan in his statement for the revival of cricket said: “We need to work out more on teenagers and need professional coaches for them.”

The PCB, he said, should not compromise on discipline and cited the example of Andrew Symonds who was dropped from the Australian squad for missing a team meeting.

Shafqat Naghmi in his comments said, “PCB is a regulatory, facilitative and supervisory organisation and with a participatory approach it can fulfill its role by supporting regional cricket associations to strengthen domestic structure.”

“We can even look into the factor to change the composition of cricket associations,” he concluded.

Following are the committee members:

Farooq H. Naek (chairman); Najamuddin Khan (co-chairman); Ashraf Khan, Shafqat Naghmi, Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, Pir Aftab Jiliani, Tariq Baloch, Mian Munir Ahmed, Shakil Sheikh, Ameer Nawab, Akhunzada Chattan, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq (members).