LAHORE, Dec 23: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar M Khan said there were other reasons for Javed Miandad's removal as coach of the national team and not only the defeats against India in the Test and One-day series.

"Yes I did issue a strongly-worded statement soon after the Pakistan team lost to India but but there were other reasons for Miandad's ouster," he told reporters on Thursday without elaborating the 'other reasons.'

About the Perth defeat, the PCB chief said it was not worse than the Rawalpindi loss for three reasons. "The team could not sustain the pressure, captain's back pain played negative impact on other players' mind and the team is not used to playing Test matches after involved in lots of ODIs," he said.

The chairman, however, defended both high-profile coach Bob Woolmer and skipper Inzamamul Haq. "Under Woolmer's coaching Pakistan had defeated India four times and came close to beating Australia twice in one-dayers."

"Inzamam came to bat despite the bad back. Had he not come to bat, the morale of the rest of the teams would have been at the lowest ebb," he said. He said that PCB would consider a proposal to give Inzamam matches in patches to keep him fit.

The PCB chief said that the PCB could change the decision of awarding central contract to the players on seniority basis. "Initially the board signed the contract for a period of six months and next time it could be either on performance basis or could be done away with."

Shaharyar said that the Senate Standing Committee chairman on sports Chaudhary Zafar Iqbal had met Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari (retired), who is forming the PCB constitution. Mr Karamat had briefed the senate committee chairman on the progress of the constitution making.

He said that any delay in framing the constitution was not due to the board. "People have been blaming me the delay but, actually, we want to prepare a comprehensive and more workable draft," he said.