PCB to hire players for promotion of game

Karachi, July 24: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) plans to hire players who will act as its `roving ambassadors'. The chairman of the PCB Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said some of the leading Pakistan players will be employed by the board who will represent the institution in smaller cities.

"There are a couple of unemployed players. They will be employed by the board and during off season, they will be assigned to go to smaller cities to coach and guide school and college cricketers," the general said.

He cited the example of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmad who are without regular jobs. Mushtaq is hired on contractual basis by National Bank while Inzamam is without a job for the last four years since retrenchment in United Bank.

"If I hire these players, firstly they will get a job, and secondly they will play active part in promoting the sport in the country," he remarked.

He added that he was also planning to get this clause added in the contracts of the cricketers which will be awarded to them before the start of the 2000-2001 season.

"Instead of getting coaches from aboard, I plan to utilize my own players to help the youngsters," he said.

Shoaib Akhtar: The Gen said speedster Shoaib Akhtar would return to competitive cricket in Toronto.

He said he met Shoaib in London where the bowler told him that he would resume bowling in the first week of August. The PCB chief said the pacer told him that Nottinghamshire was looking after his treatment for side muscles in the back which prevented him from playing for Pakistan in West Indies, Dhaka and Sri Lanka before sidelining from making debut in the English County Championships for Notts.

He general admitted that he was a bit surprised to know that Nottinghamshire were looking after his back despite the fact that his contract was cancelled.

"But Shoaib told me that the county fears that if they release me now, any other county can hire him. Notts want to sign him for the 2001 English season," Zia said.

Cricket Academy: The general said the board was planning to set up cricket academies at four major cities of the country i.e. Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

"Then we will have a national academy from where the best players would graduate," he said.

Zia said to get the infrastructure ready in lines with cricket academy in Australia, the board is sending its two representatives for review.

"Col (retd) Shujauddin and Mr Omar (NESPAK) will leave for Australia on Aug 11. They will survey the academies in Brisbane and Adelaide. On their feedback, we will launch our academies."

He said the project would be completed in 24 months but promised that it would be handled on top priority basis.

Team Performance Evaluated: General Tauqir Zia said during last week's PCB advisory panel meeting, the performance of the team in the last four months was also evaluated.

While terming the performance as satisfactory, he didn't hide his displeasure of the team's drubbing in the triangular series where Pakistan lost all the four one-dayers.

"The advisory panel was of the unanimous view that we lost because of two reason: 1-poor batting, 2-wrong decision to bat first."

He argued that the Sri Lankans Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga and Duleep Mendis were surprised by Pakistan's decision to bat after winning the toss. "They said the first hour is always crucial at the SSC. Their point was proved when he lost six wickets within the first 60 minutes of play.

The general, however, said the discipline of the team was excellent on the tours. While admitting that some misunderstanding had developed between manager Brig Khawaja Nasir (retd) and the coach Javed Miandad, they were now the best friends."