LAHORE: Employees of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) heaved a sigh of relief when they came to know that the meeting of a committee formed to downsize the staff scheduled for Tuesday had been deferred till Sept 23.

The meeting was delayed as the head of that committee, former PCB chairman Najam Sethi, is not in Pakistan.

Sethi had sacked hundreds of employees during his tenure of PCB chief in which he was the head of Pakistan cricket thrice in the last year and his predecessor Shaharyar Khan had announced to continue the move to decrease the strength of the staff.

“The lower-grade staff fear that the axe may fall on them,” a group of employees said. “The staff isn’t in excess but the PCB policies have resulted in a gradual increase.

“We are in favour of the suspension of the ‘ghost’ staff but those who are working should not be sacked. As the PCB has the occupation of all the major cricket stadia in the country, it needs a good number of staff to maintain all the venues.

“Moreover, a good number of the PCB employees are also working at regional level, therefore it is the observation that the total staff strength is in large.”

Shaharyar has declared that the downsizing would be held carefully as in its first phase, some deserving full-time employees had been sacked.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2014