KARACHI, Feb 23: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad hoc committee has failed to justify its existence and better be scrapped for the good of the game.
It was formed last year to check arbitrary decisions of the ad hoc chairman of the PCB and to get actively engaged in the running of the organisation, take decisions on important issues such as misuse of funds and to bring transparency in financial transactions as well as administrative matters.
The committee comprises former Test great Imtiaz Ahmad, bureaucrat Moeen Afzal, banker Ali Raza and legislator Dr Naseem Ashraf, besides PCB chairman himself, who has veto power. Imtiaz has been inducted merely to give the committee some credibility.
Regretfully Imtiaz hardly matters in the decision-making while the others have little or no knowledge of the game. Hence they are being used as rubber stamp by top PCB officials to camouflage their wrongdoings.
Due to these high-profile individuals’ pressing engagements, meetings are either postponed or hardly anything concrete emerges when they are held at all.
The committee had opted to look the other way on PCB officials’ and their wives on foreign and domestic trips undertaken at every possible pretext, hiring of more than half a dozen foreign experts at astronomical remunerations, awarding contracts without tenders, appointing friends and relatives and doling out money without justification.
A prime example of how money is being squandered was the two bonuses paid to the PCB staff on Pakistan’s victory in the Test and ODI series against England.
The most glaring example of the committee’s ineffectiveness has been the inaction on a proposal to appoint paid selectors to replace the present system of honorary selection committee.
Almost every month reports circulate that the ad hoc committee will decide the thorny matter of paid selectors, but nothing emerges except for a declaration that the issue will again be debated at the next meeting.
Everyone agrees, including the ad hoc PCB chairman, that it is imperative to replace the honorary selection committee and appoint a paid one mainly because the present selectors are full time employees and hardly have time to witness first class matches.
The only time the selectors are seen on the grounds are during trial matches, camps or to visit abroad of Pakistan team to assess players performance.
Another issue of vital importance overlooked by the committee has been the ticket scam that resulted in genuine ticket holders not only being unable to get into stadiums but also being caned by law enforcement personnel during the visits of England and Indian teams.
The PCB awarded the contract of printing of tickets and their sale through internet to a website without tenders to oblige a close relative of a very influential person. The website was paid over Rs 7 million for the job. So much for transparency promised by the PCB chief.
For the betterment and promotion of cricket the time has come to get rid of ad hocism and have a democratically-run board. If the present policy continues cricket will meet the same fate as squash and hockey.