Mohsin Khan to head powerful Cricket Committee

KARACHI: Ehsan Mani took the first major step of his tenure as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday when he oversaw the formation of a powerful cricket committee.

Headed by former Pakistan Test batsman Mohsin Hassan Khan, PCB’s newly-formed cricket committee would enjoy wide-ranging powers even though top Board officials stressed that it won’t have a role in decision-making.

Mohsin, a former Pakistan coach and chief selector, was named chairman of the committee which includes Wasim Akram, Misbah-ul-Haq and Urooj Mumtaz. Three other former cricketers - Mudassar Nazar, Zakir Khan and Haroon Rasheed - will provide functional and administrative assistance to the committee as it carries out its work. All three of them are on PCB’s payrolls.

Mani, who has been keen to form such a committee since taking over as PCB chief last month, declared that “nothing that happens in Pakistan cricket that this committee cannot look at”.

The committee will oversee the performance of the national selectors and national coaches. It will also evaluate and make recommendations on the state of pitches and balls used in domestic cricket. Further duties include overseeing grade-level and women’s cricket and meeting with the head coach at least three times a year to “assess their performance and understand what their plans and goals are and guide the PCB in these aspects”.

A key power invested in the committee will be the authority to appoint members to the selection committee, but Subhan Ahmed, PCB’s COO, clarified that the selectors will work independently.

“The selection committee will continue to function independently from this cricket committee. They have separate roles to perform. The cricket committee has been given a remit to independently oversee various aspects,” he said.

Mohsin stressed that the committee would function “without any favouritism”.“The chairman told me he wanted to form a committee that included some of the best cricketers in Pakistan’s history, and you can see that in the presence of Wasim, Misbah and Urooj Mumtaz. We will all work together on issues ranging from domestic cricket to international cricket, be it about selection, captain or coaches. We will make all our decisions on merit, without any favouritism. That is my goal, and I’m glad the chairman has given me such a fine team to work with.”

Wasim Akram said that the main idea was to find the best way to help Pakistan cricket. “People have often asked me why I haven’t got involved in coaching, especially with my experience of the past 8-10 years. But it’s about finding the best way to improve Pakistan cricket, which involves improving the first-class structure. It won’t happen overnight, but with the experience of all of us, we can make a difference.”

The most recently retired player to be part of the committee, Misbah-ul-Haq, who is still active in the domestic circuit, said he felt he understood the problems facing domestic cricket. “It’s a good opportunity for all of us to share our ideas and make suggestions to the board. There’s a great need for improvement.”

Misbah had shared video footage of squalid dressing rooms at the LCCA ground in Lahore during the first round of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy this year, sparking nation-wide criticism. It triggered a wider conversation about the need to invest in the first-class game, for which Misbah has been an ardent spokesman for several years.

“The first-class cricketers are the only ones we have that will go on to represent Pakistan at international level. So we need to provide them with the requisite facilities and make domestic cricket competitive, otherwise you can never improve the standard of cricket in your country.

“That I am still playing enables me to get a first-hand account of the current problems facing first-class cricketers. This speeds up the implementation process, because you don’t need to ask anyone else about the realities on the ground. We want to have a significantly improved domestic system by the time the next Quaid-e-Azam trophy season rolls around.”

The appointment of the committee did ignite a controversy as Mohsin has described Wasim Akram as “tainted” several times in the past.Appearing on different television channels in the recent past, Mohsin had always advocated the need to remove “tainted” players from the Pakistan cricket set-up.

While pushing his argument, Mohsin had hinted towards, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and others, who were fined by the PCB in 2000 on the recommendations of a match-fixing inquiry commission for not cooperating with the inquiry.

However, it seems that he has taken a U-turn. After his appointment, he told the media that he was briefed by Mani and Subhan on the issue and he was 99 per cent satisfied there was no authenticity in the allegations investigated against Wasim and other players. —with inputs from agencies