LAHORE: It seems the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), whose employee strength increased from 20 to around massive 700 during the last 18 years, is extremely confused on recruitment issues, it has emerged.

In some cases, two appointments on one position were made due to this confusion.

Interestingly, sources said, the NCA had suggested the PCB to appoint former Test cricketer Ijaz Ahmed as batting coach of the academy, instead of utilising his services as fielding coach.

This suggestion was made, ignoring the fact that former ODI cricketer Mansoor Rana was already working as NCA batting coach. Though the PCB on this recommendation initially agreed to appoint Ijaz as NCA batting coach, but later when it emerged that Mansoor was already working at the academy on this post, the appointment letter was withdrawn.

In another such case, the NCA recommended ex-Test cricketer Mohammad Ilyas for the position of club cricket coordinator, again ignoring the fact that Azhar Zaidi is already working on the same post.

Back in the mid 1990s, the PCB was functioning with merely 20-odd employees but politics and culture of nepotism badly damaged the Board structure as every chairman since the era of retired Lt Gen Tauqir Zia kept on recruiting employees without giving proper consideration to viability and merit.

Whenever, during this period, any chairman sought to curtail the PCB employee strength, the move was made merely to vacate some posts in order to adjust blue-eyed individuals later on.

When contacted to get PCB’s stance on the matter, no response was received from NCA director Aizad Said.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2016