LAHORE, Oct 6: A meeting held between the Federal Law Minister Farooq H. Naek and some former Test cricketers on Sunday for the improvement of the game has perturbed the Federal Sports Ministry and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which were not invited to attend the reportedly unscheduled meeting.

Naek, who has been assigned to remove the flaws from the PCB constitution and for this purpose he is heading a 15-member committee, held a meeting with former Test cricketers namely Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar, Ramiz Raja and Mushtaq Ahmed here on Sunday to seek suggestions for the improvement of cricket in the country. However, most members of the constitution committee were not present in the meeting.

Similarly, sources told Dawn that both the PCB and the Sports Ministry were kept in the dark about the meeting, despite the fact that their officials were also part of the constitution committee. The whole exercise, sources said, had raised concerns that the law minister might have started efforts to get hold of the cash-rich PCB.

Earlier, the Sports Ministry had involved itself when the patron of the PCB, President Asif Ali Zardari, could not take a decision to appoint the next chairman in place of Dr Nasim Ashraf, who had resigned from the post on Aug 18.

Sources in the Sports Ministry said that even the Sports Minister Najamuddin Khan was not informed about the Sunday meeting and that he would raise the matter with the law minister after coming back from Geneva, Switzerland.

The sources admitted that Najamuddin, who has become the acting chairman of the PCB after making an amendment in the constitution with the collaboration of the law ministry, now fears more involvement of Naek in the PCB, which could also have curtailed his own role.

Being the richest sports body of the country, various lobbies were involved to get PCB’s control. Furthermore, the wrongdoings in the cricket board promoted the ministries to get involved in it at the pretext of improving its image.

Meanwhile, sources in the PCB said Naek had summoned tested players. Almost all of them had got chances to serve national cricket but they had failed.

They said Ramiz as chief executive and adviser had worked with two chairmen — Lt Gen (rtd) Tauqir Zia and Shaharyar M. Khan — from 2000 to 2004. But during his tenure the Pakistan team could not qualify for the super-six stage of the 2003 World Cup, whereas in its previous edition held in 1999 Pakistan had reached the final.

Similarly, Inzamam ruled national cricket as captain after the 2003 World Cup. But he also failed to change the fortunes as in the 2007 World Cup Pakistan were ousted again in the first round after an unexpected defeat at the hands of Ireland.

Sources further said Wasim, though he had been a great fast bowler of his time, also became controversial along with Mushtaq after the issuance of Justice (rtd) Malik Qayyum commission’s report, which probed the match-fixing scandals. The Justice had recommended the PCB not to appoint Wasim as captain. Inzamam and Mushtaq had also been fined by Qayyum.

Sources added that if the two federal ministries work without coordination, the PCB affairs would further deteriorate instead of any improvement, which the board could not bear under the prevailing condition.

An immediate appointment of the new chairman was the only solution to all the problems and to restore the autonomous status of the PCB, the sources added.