LAHORE: Due to a late decision taken by the Senate Standing Committee on Sports, a mess-up was created as the visit made by two key officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to Islamabad to appear before the Senate Committee to brief it over the cricket affairs went in vain.

PCB chairman Ehsan Mani and chief executive Wasim Khan had reached Islamabad on Thursday morning to attend the said meeting scheduled for Friday. But later in the evening they came to know that the meeting was postponed.

According to a PCB spokesman, when the two officials left for Islamabad the scheduled meeting had not been postponed but it was put off when they had left for the capital city.

To a question, the spokesman said Mani and Wasim during their stay in Islamabad met former speedster Shoaib Akhtar and exchanged views on the current affairs of Pakistan cricket. “Neither the chairman made any offer to Shoaib nor the bowler offered his services for any job,” added the spokesman.

He said the one-year performance of Misbah-ul-Haq as head coach and chief selector is yet to be reviewed by the PCB cricket committee, which currently exists without a chairman as Iqbal Qasim has resigned after developing differences over some policies of the Board.

Mani, Wasim meet Shoaib Akhtar in Islamabad

After Iqbal’s resignation, legendary fast bowler Wasim Akram is the only heavyweight cricketer on the cricket committee. The PCB chairman had to pick a man for the said post soon and most probably the process of reviewing one-year performance would start by the end of September, the spokesman said.

Until the review of the performance, the spokesman said, there is no reason to take any decision.

Meanwhile, Misbah held a series of meetings with newly-appointed director National High Performance Centre Nadeem Khan as several decisions without his consultation had to be taken.

The PCB took the stance that as Misbah had left for England with the national squad on June 28 on a 66-day tour and the country’s domestic season had to begin so the decisions were taken in his absence.

The spokesman denied that Misbah had expressed his reservations over the changes made in appointing the new head coaches of the six provincial teams, and no change was in the offing in this regard.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2020