KARACHI, Oct 24: Former manager of Pakistan team, Fakir S. Aizazuddin, has called for a democratic cricket board in this country.

In a statement, released Thursday, Aizazuddin says “this oligarchic system of governance by the board where a small coterie holds sway taking all the decisions must stop if any real and worthwhile progress is to be made in the rehabilitation of the present team.”

Aizazuddin, who toured England as member of national squad in 1967, argues that all sports bodies in the country have democratically elected councils except the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

“This speaks volumes for the self interest seeking ad hocists, deeply entrenched who are eating into the vitals of the board and are desperate to maintain status quo,” he said.

Aizazuddin believes it is cricket board’s ad hocism that is the root cause of all ills which was damaging the morale and destroying the unity of the team.

“It was the ad hocism on which the board and its factotums were operating,’ he says and adds, “arbitrary appointments and dismissals, ill-planned action, unfair selections generally the pattern on which the functionaries were working. Hasty orders issued and just as hastily withdrawn.”

Further, Aizazuddin points out that this kind of working was playing havoc with the team discipline and cohesion thus emboldening the players, encouraging them to form power groups and strut about like prima donnas caring little for authority.

Aizazuddin, who managed the Pakistan squad in New Zealand last year, gives a couple of suggestions to improve the situation.

Firstly, he says, the institution of the board has to be put on a sound footing by providing it with a constitution in which all the members are democratically elected and they should be technocrats who have played the game at the highest level.

Secondly, the elected council will discuss the points of the agenda and after obtaining a consensus from all the participating members of the council decisions will be taken which will then bear the stamp of authenticity and legality and as such will be respected and followed by all including the players.

Lastly, Aizazuddin added that all other cricket playing countries have their boards working on democratic lines and the system has proved highly successfully, so why not adopt the same for PCB.