LAHORE: Former Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Khalid Mahmood has criticised the PCB for mishandling the case of fast bowler Mohammad Amir and said it is quite unfortunate that the career of another fine bowler is being spoiled due to mishandling of the Board.

“It is unfortunate what has happened in the case of Mohammad Amir,” Khalid told Dawn. “It seems they [PCB] that they don’t care about the betterment of Pakistan cricket. Every Pakistani feels that such incidents like mistreating Amir and others damage Pakistan cricket

It was indeed quite surprising that barely hours after Amir announced his decision to quit international cricket, the PCB issued a press release, calling it Amir’s personal decision and showing no intent to convince him to stay or to remove his grievances.

“No doubt, Amir is an outstanding bowler, but the PCB could not take good care of him and is going to mess up his case,” said Khalid. “Had Amir been playing for another country, they would have benefitted tremendously from a skilled bowler like him. We mishandled Amir and now when he is leaving because he says he cannot work with the current management of the national team, the PCB instead of holding investigations into his allegations have gone aloof of the whole saga,” lamented Khalid who is never known to mice his words.

“It is a case of a player and not of any soldier of any army. If someone does not want to play Test cricket, the PCB can provide him counselling,” added Khalid. “But if he is still not willing to play the five-day format, the board should never force him to play.”

“Do you recall what was the attitude of England’s top all-rounder Ian Botham during his playing days and how tactfully his cricket board handled him and got the best out of him,” asked Khalid. “Prolific cricketers are like diamonds and as you know most of our cricketers come from poor and humble background, it is the PCB’s job to groom them and take care of them so that they can serve the national team at their best for a longer period,” he pointed out.

He said even if there was 10 percent substance in Amir’s allegations, the PCB should have investigated the matter and people responsible in the team management or the selectors.

To a question, Khalid also expressed his concern over the PCB’s decision of elevating top batsman Babar Azam as captain of all three formats of the Pakistan team. “It is not necessary that the best player in the team should lead the team,” he argued. “Look how India removed Sachin Tendulkar as captain and appointed a much less experienced player Mahindra Singh Dhoni and just how well that paid off. The ECB, too, realised early on that Ian Botham is not captaincy material and changed him.”

Khalid was also not satisfied with the way the Pakistan team was managed for the tour of New Zealand where a good number of positive Covid-19 cases emerged. He said the traveling plan of the Pakistan team had major flaws and due to the positive cases, the team could not prepare properly for the important series against a strong New Zealand side.

“I personally used to believe that Ehsan Mani was a good administrator as he served well at the ICC level, but unfortunately he does not have the ability to run the PCB in that way,” concluded Khalid.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2020