Pakistan: PCB not to interfere with captain's powers (24 Dec 1997)

24 December 1997

PCB not to interfere with captain's powers

By Our Sports Reporter

KARACHI, Dec 23: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will not instruct Wasim Akram to bat behind Azhar Mahmood, Chairman Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah Bokhari said on Tuesday.

The PCB chief, on a short visit to Karachi, while talking to Dawn said it was the prerogative of the captain to make necessary changes in the batting order. He said the PCB did not consider it appropriate to interfere with the captain's strategy.

"The job of the cricket board is to give 13 or 14 players to the captain. Now which players have to be played or at what numbers they have to bat on, is the discretion of the captain," Bokhari said at the National Stadium.

Wasim Akram is the centre of criticism for batting ahead of Azhar Mahmood in the Sharjah Champions Trophy where Pakistan failed to qualify for the final.

The PCB boss stated that if the board made this move, it would not be in a position to probe the skipper for any batting failure. "We would be in no position whatsoever to question why Akram didn't bat ahead of Azhar Mahmood if required in any future situation. The skipper will came back and say he was following the instructions.

"The process of accountability might be affected because it will be the board that will come into picture," Bokhari opined.

However, the PCB chief didn't hide his displeasure over Akram's decision of making Azhar Mahmood bat at No 9. Bokhari was of the view that on current form, Akram should have allowed Mahmood to bat ahead of him. "Azhar Mahmood was in form and had shown his talent and potential in crunch situations. I strongly believe that Wasim Akram should have realised that he was not in the best of forms. Had Azhar Mahmood gone ahead of Akram, the result might have been different.

"But still, it was the decision of the captain which backfired. These things do happen as it never goes the way you think, like, plan or want things to go," Bokhari stated.

Bokhari admitted that the Pakistan cricket team was immensely talented and the inconsistency in performance was surprising.

"I have previously told Majid Khan (Chief Executive) to evaluate and probe the performance of the team. He has done this in the past. "The same is needed this time also because we have lost more matches than have won. I am sure the Chief Executive will constitute a committee of technocrats to question the captain, manager and coach," he said. Asked how he plans to restore the lost confidence of the followers of the game in the national outfit, Bokhari said it was difficult. "The only way is to keep winning all the times which is almost impossible. How can you remain unbeaten, you will sometimes lose also and the enthusiasts should realise this."

Bokhari, when pressed further, stated that it was difficult for a surgical operation of the Pakistan cricket team. "It is practically not possible to replace every member of the team because we don't have a back-up of world-class players, the way we used to have previously when we had batsmen like Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas etc."

Bokhari refused to accept that the match-fixing or betting was part of modern day cricket. "In the past, Pakistan cricket team also used to lose. Sometime we were even white-washed but never these allegations were levelled.

"I assume that now all this is being said because there is a lot of money involved as cricket has become a commercial venture and the players have turned professionals," he argued.

He parried the question if some more players will be axed the way Salim Malik was sacked after the Sahara Cup.

It may be mentioned here that Salim Altaf ousted Salim Malik for not giving his best and on suspicion of mysterious activities in Canada. Interestingly, the entire cricket board hierarchy, including the Chief Executive and Chief Selector, was in Sharjah to see if there was any thing other than the performance that denied Pakistan a place in the final.

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)