LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan has made it clear to players undergoing training at the Gaddafi Stadium that there will be no compromise on their fitness.

He visited the stadium along with PCB executive committee chairman Najam Sethi and newly-appointed team manager Talat Ali Malik on Monday.

“Physical fitness is an important factor in selecting players for the West Indies tour and head coach Mickey Arthur has told me that five players are not matching the fitness level,” Shaharyar said.

“I have decided against giving relaxation to any player. They have been told by me to either improve their fitness or face the axe,” he added firmly.

Moreover, the chairman said he had advised players to keep prestige of the country first as they were its ambassadors.

“Our players exhibited good discipline on last tours of New Zealand, England and Australia, and we received appreciation letters from their cricket boards who also declared Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq as spirit of cricket,” Shaharyar said.

On corrupt practices being used in the game, he said strict punishment would be given to players who were involved in them.

He maintained that bookies were using new methods to trap cricketers through their friends and families instead of contacting them directly.

The chairman said Mohammad Irfan and Shahzaib Hasan had been allowed to take part in PSL 2 as their case was different from Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif’s.

Irfan, on Monday, appeared before PCB’s anti-corruption unit while Shahzaib will present his case on Tuesday.

Asked if there were chances that more cricketers would be grilled by the anti-corruption unit, Shaharyar said the anti-corruption unit was in a better position to answer the question.

A three-member tribunal comprising Lahore High Court’s former judge Asghar Hyder Rizvi, Tauqir Zia and Waseem Bari is investing the PSL corruption episode.

About resumption of cricket between India and Pakistan, Shaharyar said India did not honour the deal signed between the two countries for restoration of cricket ties.

He further said negotiations were underway with different cricket broads to restore international cricket in Pakistan after successful holding of the PSL final in Lahore.

The chairman refrained from answering when asked to comment on ex-wicketkeeper Rashid Latif’s remark that PSL was a ‘Satta (gambling) League’.

To a question that chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq was not interested in allowing Pakistani players to play leagues of other countries in order to avoid fatigue, the chairman said the PCB always gave preference to Inzamam’s opinions.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2017