LAHORE: The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Shaharyar Khan, expressed his great disappointment over Pakistan junior team’s ouster from the ongoing U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh after facing defeat at the hands of the West Indies.

“I will personally take action in this regard to know the reasons of this dismal show,” Shaharyar said.

“It is the need of hour to ascertain what the selection criteria are. Though there is pressure on selectors from different quarters, they have to take decisions in the best interest of the country,” he said.

It may be mentioned here that hue and cry was raised when the Pakistan team was finalised. Many top performers were ignored to select some ‘favourite’ players who had backing of influential persons.

Even many players, who were declared overage by Shaukat Khanum hospital were included in the squad.

A special review committee was formed by the PCB to tackle the case of overage players but that committee headed by one of the members of the Board of Governors Shakeel Sheikh rejected Shaukat Khanum’s report and got almost all the players cleared by a PCB doctor.

Shakeel Sheikh’s own son Mohammad Arsal Sheikh was also selected in the team, which was the most controversial decision of the selection committee headed by former Test cricketer Basit Ali.

Arsal had not played a single one-day match in the last national under-19 season but he was picked. Though he took four wickets against Australia, in a three-nation series held in the UAE, his performance in other three matches he played was not impressive.

Meanwhile, information coming from Bangladesh stated that Pakistan had made a wrong decision by electing to bat first after winning the toss as there were foggy conditions in the morning resulting in the batting collapse, reducing Pakistan to 57-5.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2016