'I want continuity'

Next month, you will complete a year as chairman. How have you found the experience so far?
It's been tough, but I have enjoyed it because I love the game. It poses so many different challenges. I realise that there is a flip side to it, and you get blamed for so many things - especially when the team is losing. You are the one who is guilty then, not the players, not anybody else. I take it in my stride and I try not to give it too much importance. There are a lot of a genuine people who know the game who appreciate the way things are.

There are a number of domestic issues which have dominated your tenure. The first one is the constitution of the PCB. It has been an ad-hoc body for eight years now, and you had promised a change when you came in, yet nothing has happened ...
Change is very much on the cards. We have set up a commission which is working on the constitution; it includes Justice Bhandari. who is a distinguished constitution lawyer. We have also got the Attorney-General of Pakistan and Zahid Hamid, a member of the National Assembly. We have given our views and opinions, but we have advised the commission to reach out to the districts, to administrators, and to Test players, through a questionnaire to get their opinions on the matter. I am a democrat, what I want to see is a pragmatic constitution, something that works and allows cricket to develop. What I don't want is for us to get bogged down in political machinations. I hope we can come up with a constitution that is cricket-orientated.

But do you have a time frame in mind? There has been criticism over the amount of time it has taken, and it still isn't done yet ...
I was saying October, but that isn't possible for the simple reason that the people on the commission are important and busy people. For instance, Zahid Hamid had time initially, but has since become Secretary for Defence and the amount of time he can spare is limited. People must understand that we are not delaying this, we want it quickly. This is not a ploy to prolong autocratic or ad-hoc rule. Let's spend some time over it but make sure that we then have a constitution that really works. As for a time frame, I am hopeful that within the next couple of months the commission will come up with a draft.

If and when the constitution does come, it will presumably call for election of a chairman. Will you put yourself up for that?
I am not too keen because I know it will get political and I don't want that. But if there is a general consensus that I should finish what I have started then I will consider running for the post. I am not keen, and my hat was never in the ring as far as becoming chairman at the time was concerned.

How much do you think the ad-hoc nature of the board has harmed the game in Pakistan?
I'm not too sure how much it has hurt the game. We've had ad-hoc chairmen for considerable periods of our history. Ad-hoc means that they can try and implement what they think is right. You may not agree with it but I certainly think that Tauqir Zia [the previous chairman], for instance, did a lot of good things for the game. There may be things he did that many won't agree with but I think he always had good intent and an ability to take decisions. If you have a normal system, it slows things down a bit, although it is democratic. But what I worry about is the political pulls, like Karachi versus Lahore, various people pulling in different directions etc. Then you get totally bogged down and you produce compromises, which isn't good.

But the ad-hoc nature of the board gives rise to things like the Senate Committee for Culture and Sports, which then grills you on all sorts of affairs, including why you lost the India series. What is the latest with the committee?
I actually don't mind something like that. It is their right after all to question us. But the raison d'etre of this committee was that they felt there had been match-fixing in the series against India. I told them, "I don't think that is so. We lost for cricketing reasons to a side marginally better than us." We were leading in the one-day series and I didn't feel there was any fixing. Then came the report of the ACU - Lord Condon's committee - who clearly stated that there had been nothing wrong during the series.

Do you think there was a political agenda behind the committee?
Not political, but personal. There is a group of people who are angling against us for personal, vested reasons - people we didn't give jobs to, or contracts to, someone who wanted to be chairman, someone didn't have their son in the team, all sorts of reasons. I found most of the committee of 15-20 very reasonable, just a couple were very harsh in their criticism, including Enver Baig. I don't hold it against him, he has every right to question things but he should be fair and accept our answers when we give them. Anyway, there is one more committee meeting, but I am not sure they will call on me. I will give them every document they have asked for.

District associations are also not happy with the Board. They feel they have been sidelined in the running of the game, don't they?
No, I think it is only three or four of the big ones who are not happy. These include Karachi, Lahore, Mardan and a difficult one in Quetta.

But you have taken the selection process of district teams away from them and have put in Board selectors at district level ...
Look, I am not an inflexible man. Last season the selection process was taken away from them, because there was so much corruption there. Don't take my word for it; just look at Lahore's performance domestically. They were bottom last year and both their teams are bottom in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy this year. Why? Because they played about 40 boys and many of the really good players are playing for Quetta or Hyderabad. There was a deep malaise in the process. We said to the districts, [if] you are not going to pick a first-class team, we will. Rightly, they said how can you expect a man from Karachi to go to Peshawar and select a team there? This year we have changed it, and corruption has been reduced. We now have two selectors from the region, nominated by the districts, but those two have to have our approval. Those two select for the districts, and there is one selector of ours and a regional coach, who is supposed to oversee all the talent for the region. This team of four becomes the selection committee for the region, and the chairman will be the selector chosen by us. In this way, districts have their own selection process. There is also a process of decentralisation - a draft of which we are releasing in a couple of days - which says we believe that the associations are the life blood of cricket here and we will support them, but it has to be a two-way process. We will give you a guideline and you run the show. Also the regional development officers we have selected will be able to help this process better and create better communication between the two.

Are you happy with the state of the domestic game in Pakistan now? This year, for the first time in many, there weren't any structural changes ...
I want continuity in the system, but I am happy now. We will continue to fine-tune it, of course, but the basic aim is to get high quality and fewer games with increased crowd support. That doesn't mean that you will fill a stadium. You won't, but there must be some element of local support. The great thing is that we have found a national sponsor and we are now trying to find regional sponsors for each of the nine regions. We are getting a very good response for it as well. We want to have sponsors for each regional team, for academies, for schools and club cricket as well.

But it seems you are trying to take the game away from the departments, which offer players a livelihood.
The first thing is that departments are now not providing a livelihood to players, they are exploiting them. I am not against them, but departments have changed in their attitudes, I am sorry to say. Earlier on they provided players with a livelihood. But now, through sponsorship and the PCB, we are saying to regional teams, we will provide you with the finances until sponsors are found. We will reduce the number of departments to get more quality from 12 teams to eight. But they protested this year, and we let them keep it to 12 on some conditions. They must have proper financial support for players. It shouldn't be as it is now where they hire players for only six months, and then leave them after that. It should be more permanent. Number two, they must have their own grounds and coaching set-ups. But most importantly, they must sponsor a part of the game at regional, club or school level, otherwise they will not be able to play next year. So Sui Gas Corporation, for example, can support Balochistan region or a regional academy there. If they don't do it, then it means they are not contributing to the development of the game.

But how long can the PCB sustain this, given the finances it requires to pay every player?
This is our challenge, but it will last as long as we get sponsors. If, for example, we can get the Faisalabad cotton barons to sponsor the Faisalabad team, then they can provide financial support. I also have indications from the government that they will press state organizations such as WAPDA or PSO to support a team. So we are likely to have sponsors for regions. Now with television also in - Ten Sports will televise domestic matches - we have two key factors that can take the domestic game forward here. Am I satisfied with the game? It requires a lot of support and financing, but right now, we have a sponsor and also TV, and this can make a big difference.

Does your vision of a healthy domestic game in the long-term have departmental teams in it?
Frankly, I would like them there. The most important thing is the regional tournament, but departments can contribute by employing players, giving them a salary as well as what they receive from their regional teams. I would like to cut down the number of departments and introduce, in two or three years, promotion and relegation.

Have you got any plans to promote the game at school level, because it is completely neglected there?
All I can say is that the intention is there. How are we going to do it? I cannot say at this moment, I have a vague idea but nothing specific. It also depends on the institutions themselves. We will provide them with grounds, coaches, support, but if they themselves are not willing to do it, then there is not much can we do.

Are you happy with the work Bob Woolmer has done so far?
I am very happy with him, he is a superb coach. You have to allow six months before things are put in place. But already there are clear signs of improvement. The bowling discipline has been much better, especially if you consider the number of extras in the India series. The fielding also is sharper. We have bad days, as every team does, but the way we have fielded in this Test [against Sri Lanka at Karachi] has been excellent. There is also a spirit and real verve in the team. Woolmer has inculcated this and the players are getting on with him and his support team. The biggest change is the culture of fitness he has brought in. He told me that your players are so unfit it is unbelievable. It is getting better slowly, and he has said that they won't be as fit as he wants them for some time. Also, medical fitness has been given some importance, which we have never really had before.

Are you happy with Inzamam as a captain? You had been quoted as saying that he was an uninspiring leader ...
No, what I said was that he was a laid-back person. Every captain projects his personality on the team and the game, and each is different. You may be a firebrand leader, or an inspirational one like Abdul Hafeez Kardar, or a quiet thinker. Inzamam is our top player, the only one who can step into any team. I am very happy with Inzamam. He is very dignified and reads the game very well. He may not be very articulate but, most importantly, he is a man of great integrity. You ask him a question, he'll take his time to answer and he'll give you a short answer, but it will be spot-on, and to the point. I have, personally, a great regard for him.

You were in two minds about whether or not to put in a central-contracts system for the national team, but it is going ahead now. How did that happen?
I was persuaded by Woolmer and Inzamam. It's not that I don't want it myself, but I am not entirely convinced that it is the right thing. Our boys are paid a lot of money as it is. It provides stability, yes. Inzamam actually gave me very good advice on it and so I went along with it, I value his judgment and I trusted him on it.

Finally, what are your future plans to run the board on more professional lines?
We have put in place a transparent process for recruitment for the first time ever in the board's history. This means that for middleand lower-ranking officials we have our own committee for selection. But for high-ranking officials we will look to people outside to recruit, and not do it ourselves. Within the next ten days, juniorand middle-ranking positions will be selected. A lot of regional development officers have been selected, and positions like project managers and marketing managers will also be filled soon. The Senior Executive position [formerly the chief executive] will be the last position, and the candidate will be chosen by people outside the PCB. I don't want people to accuse me of nepotism, so they will select and I will look at the selections and get the final approval from the President of Pakistan. But the whole process will be done by about the middle to end of November. It's taking time because there is a lot of change to make and we don't want to rush into anything and get things wrong.