Pakistan board to face Senate

Pakistan's exit from the Champions Trophy has led to a summons for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) by the Senate Standing Committee on Sports, which will question board officials on several issues that have affected the team's performance over the past few months. The meeting is scheduled to take place at Parliament House in Islamabad on Monday.

The issues include The Oval Test forfeiture, non-implementation of the PCB constitution, Younis Khan's public volte-face on the captaincy, the performance of the national selection committee, and coach Bob Woolmer's failure to find a reliable opening pair. However, the doping scandal involving fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif will not be discussed, as it would require the permission of the chairman of the Senate committee.

Senator Enver Baig, a member of the committee, told Dawn, a Pakistan-based daily, that he wasn't aware of the officials representing the PCB, but stressed that the non-implementation of the constitution would need to be addressed urgently, believing it to be the root cause of all problems plaguing Pakistan cricket. Shaharyar Khan, the previous chairman of the PCB, had tried through his tenure to put a constitution in place, but publicly stated on a few occasions that it was awaiting the approval of Pervez Musharraf, Patron of the PCB and president of Pakistan.

Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, announced in Karachi earlier this month that the draft of the constitution would be presented to Musharraf on November 1, and sought to assure its implementation following his approval.

Regarding The Oval Test fiasco - when Pakistan were accused of ball-tampering by umpire Darrell Hair - Baig was confident that Ashraf would be able to address the issue, as the controversy had occurred during the previous PCB regime.

"He [Nasim] was the man who made a contact between the president General Pervez Musharraf and Inzamam-ul-Haq during The Oval Test when the controversy began," Baig explained.