LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finally decided to do away with the policy of awarding dual posts to team officials and other Board employees which certainly augurs well for the future of Pakistan cricket.

The former chairman of the PCB Najam Sethi had initiated the policy of awarding dual posts or more to some of the officials but that strategy has failed to bear fruit since the performance of the Pakistan team has been on a constant decline over the past few months.

Former Pakistan captain Moin Khan was a major beneficiary of Sethi’s policies, holding three post including that of the chief selector, team manager as well as the head of the coaches-finding committee which made little sense. According to reports, Moin is now likely to be assigned just one post now - either of chief selector or manager of the national team.

No PCB chairman in the past had reposed such faith in one person the way Sethi had entrusted Moin although the ex-chairman could never justify the move. The former PCB chairman must have now realised that the advice he received in this regard was not just wrong but based on nepotism which clearly backfired when the Pakistan team lost successive matches in Sri Lanka and recently against Australia.

Sources in the Board said incumbent chairman Shaharyar Khan had not been entirely happy with this arrangement and also made it clear that this arrangement of dual jobs would have to be dispensed with once he settled down as PCB chief. Surely, Moin was one of the best wicket-keepers the country had ever produced but he could not do justice to the posts.

Now that the 2015 World Cup is just round the corner, the morale of the national team is considerably low with cricket pundits claiming that Pakistan should forget about pulling off any major achievement in the upcoming World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia and New Zealand.

Such depressing predictions about the national team could only further disturb the dressing room atmosphere, particularly in the lead-up to the next year’s extravaganza. For the team to overcome this depressing situation and rejuvenate itself for the upcoming assignments, one feels the the onus lies on the team management, particularly team manager Moin and head coach Waqar who should now focus on their duties with the team rather than getting involved with selection and other matters.

The PCB board of governors will now convene on Oct 23 and it is very much likely that some major decisions regarding the PCB officials holding dual posts will be taken in the meeting.

In this regard, it is instructive to note that selection committee members like Ijaz Ahmad (NCA official), Shoaib Mohammad (GM Sports, PIA), Saleem Yousuf (currently with Pakistan ‘A’ team in the UAE as manager and also an official with the Customs), Mohammad Akram (NCA head coach), Wajahatullah Wasti (ZTBL coach) are all performing dual jobs.

The same situation also prevails in the national junior selection committee with Basit Ali being the head of the junior selection committee in addition to working with his departmental team Sui Northern Gas Pipelines as coach besides being PCB’s consultant for Zone-I.

Ali Zia is another case in hand for he is also senior general manager NCA as well as member of the selection committee besides manager of the national U-19 team. Also, junior selector Ali Naqvi is performing his duties as coach of the Khan Research Laboratories while Shahid Aslam is currently serving as assistant of head coach Waqar besides holding a manager’s job at the NCA.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014