Pakistan MPs to probe cricket crisis

The stage is set for another battle between Pakistan's Senators and the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) top brass as the MPs probe the decline of cricket in Pakistan. A parliamentary committee on sports has summoned team management, former PCB director-general Javed Miandad and PCB officials for a meeting in the country's capital, Islamabad.

Senator Tahir Mashhadi said the committee is determined to find the causes behind the deteriorating standards of the Pakistan team. "Cricket is our top game so we want to address the reasons behind team's defeat against Sri Lanka and want to improve our cricket board affairs, which look in a shambles," Mashhadi told AFP.

The predictable fallout from the disastrous loss to Sri Lanka in the series-deciding ODI had begun with the PCB asking Shoaib Malik and the Pakistan team management to submit a detailed report of the loss. After Malik was replaced by Younis Khan as Pakistan captain, after an emergency meeting, Miandad quit as director-general of the PCB, bringing to an abrupt end his fourth stint with the board since retiring as a player.

Mashhadi said the committee wanted to also probe the controversy behind Miandad's resignation. "We have requested Miandad to give his version and wants to listen PCB's point of view on Miandad's resignation and we want to resolve the issue," he said. "Miandad has given his life to Pakistan cricket and was the man behind Pakistan's World Cup success in 1992 and he did not deserve the treatment meted out by the PCB."

The committee is also expected to probe PCB chairman Ijaz Butt about the board losing the hosting rights for the Champions Trophy after several ICC member boards expressed reservations about touring the troubled nation. Senator Enver Baig, who is part of the sports committee, had said the PCB was as much to blame for the event's shifting as the ICC.

Pakistan was scheduled to host the Champions Trophy in September this year after the tournament was postponed due to security concerns in 2008. India's cancellation of their tour in January because of cooling of relations between the two countries following the terror attacks in Mumbai was a big blow to Pakistan's chances of staging the event.