LAHORE, June 10: Javed Miandad on Thursday called upon the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to give the selectors and the coach more powers, instead of only the captain. "Throughout the world, the coach and the selection committee are powerful and each player is in awe of them and therefore tries to give 150 per cent performance," Miandad, the Pakistan coach, said while addressing the Sports Journalists Association Lahore (SJAL) on Thursday.

Miandad pointed out that Inzamam was enjoying the authority of final selection and only he could express his views about any player. "But I believe the captain should be paid a double amount as extra responsibility of captaincy but the power should be vested with the selectors and the coach," he said.

He disclosed that all decisions of selecting the team for every match in the home series against India were taken by Inzamam, but ironically, he (Miandad) was criticised.

"My contract with the board put no responsibility on me for defeat or win and my job is only to coach the boys and it depends on the selectors and the captain what lot they are giving to me," Miandad said.

He said that all players as well as the captain were equally responsible for the defeat in the home series against India and putting blame on Shoaib Akhtar only was not justified.

The coach said that the Pakistani cricketers were only 25 per cent prepared for Test cricket whereas they were learning the remaining 75 per cent while playing in it. In contrast, cricketers of other countries were 99 per cent prepared whey they play Test cricket.

"It should not be the practice, a player who has learnt 99 per cent of the game should be selected for Test cricket," he said. Miandad said that Imran Farhat, Taufiq Umar, Yasir Hameed and other young cricketers were not perfect and similarly there was not a single bowler available with team of high class.

"I think trio of Imran, Taufiq and Yasir are good prospects but they do not have 99 per cent potential of Test cricket, and they need to be further groomed. He said that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami were still passing through the learning stage.

"If you think you can get wickets with only your speed, you are wrong. You have to study each batsman and all time look busy in creating new varieties and that is the right way," he said.

However, he said that Pakistan structure at the grassroots level was not impressive. He said that the time had come to take drastic decisionto improve the standard of the cricket in the country.

He was a blunt supporter of the departments who had cricket teams. "I feel no hesitation in claiming that the Pakistan cricket was saved by these departments," he said. He said that the associations and departments both had played key roles for the promotion of the game.

The association had been giving new talent and the department polishing them and that was the reason of Pakistan being at the top till 1994. Asked why the PCB was decreasing the role of the departments in the domestic cricket, he said that the current system was better and there was need to instruct the departments to also form their junior teams.

Miandad contended said that he was not afraid at the hiring of Greg Chappell, Barry Richards and Daryl Foster for the Pakistan team and the National Cricket Academy. "I have to play my role and let them play theirs," he said.

Miandad defended the Pakistan's performance against India. "The Indians were strong in all departments but even they managed to win one more match than us both in the Test and one-day series. So you cannot say our team totally flopped," he said.

He said that the introduction of Twenty20 cricket in domestic cricket would more damage Pakistan cricket. "We already lack cricketers who have the ability to stay on the wickets for hours and such type of cricket will spoil the talent further," he added. The PCB has included 20-a-side tournament in its domestic cricket 2004-05.