The chairman meets the press

Shaharyar Khan, the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, met the local media today at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Shaharyar started by explaining that he had met Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, yesterday and wanted to outline what was discussed, as well as his plans for running the PCB after the recent resignation of Lt-Gen. Tauqir Zia.

Interestingly he was accompanied only by the PCB's media manager Samiul Hasan: the current PCB chief executive Rameez Raja and others were conspicuous by their absence.

Shaharyar said he and the President had discussed a shortand long-term plan, which will be made public in about three weeks. He said: "The president committed 100% support to me and emphasised that the PCB administration should be neat and clean and any management or other changes should be purely on merit."

He went on: "The President also wanted us to bring back the World Cup to Pakistan, and preparations for the 2007 event should be made by working hard for it."

Turning to administrative matters, he promised: "Our financial planning will be transparent, and be brought in front of the public as it is public money.

"I have been receiving calls about over-staffing and people wanting jobs. So I will institute a management-study team, and I have requested the Lahore University of Management Sciences to help in a survey and recommend staffing plans. After their report we will decide. We will go though a proper process for any appointments by proper advertising and interviews by a committee."

And on the thorny subject of selection, Shaharyar pronounced: "Selection will be purely on merit, and based on performance in first-class cricket. We will strengthen first-class cricket on the pattern of Australian cricket, and like other countries we will follow a similar selection process. I am not satisfied with our first-class cricket and it needs some changes along the pattern of Australian Sheffield Shield [Pura Cup] and English county cricket. I have read with lots of interest Andy Flower's recent statement in which he says that in Australian domestic first-class cricket, a player has a very similar feeling as in international cricket."

Shaharyar went on to say that Tauqir Zia had done a fine job in developing cricket in outlying areas, and he will continue to build up this policy. "We will concentrate on developing grass-roots cricket, and utilise our legends like Fazal Mahmood, Hanif Mohammad, Imtiaz Ahmed. Majid Khan and others to go into our academies and teach the youngsters."

Turning to discipline, he said: "We will not allow anyone - whether a matchwinner or a big player - to flout discipline as no player is bigger than the country or cricket. We will ensure our cricket is free from any external ills like betting and drugs."

And on coaching and umpiring: "We will increase the number of coaches and umpires and make a proper training set-up for them. We will be needing coaches for each of our 107 regions - at the moment we only have 38. I have studied the current proposed constitution of the board which was prepared but it will require amendment and we will appoint a constitution commission to recommend the improvements."

He promised to develop Pakistan women's cricket, and finally emphasised how important the upcoming Indian tour of Pakistan was: "We will make it a success and make sure all the security and other measures are in place for it. We will also ensure we give them a tough fight on the field of play but off the field, we will be friends and sportsmen."

The press then asked questions: asked how he would work with the various members of the PCB staff who had announced their resignations along with the outgoing chairman, Shaharyar said: "Like any change, for instance when a government changes, the contracted employees automatically resign but we will look at the merits and if the work done by anyone was good we may renew their contracts."

Fielding an enquiry about whether there would be an enquiry into the TV-rights dispute that led to the blacking-out of the recent first one-dayer between Pakistan and New Zealand, Shaharyar said: "What happened is past and in future I will go to meet the various broadcasters and others to make sure this communication gap is not repeated - and the President also asked to make sure that government co-operation is sought in future."

An interesting question about some PCB employees who are doing additional outside jobs, like commentating, brought this response: "They are on an honorary basis but we will also study this and check if there is any conflict."

He was asked whether his own appointment was just for the period of the imminent Indian tour (he was the manager of the Pakistan team when it last toured India successfully). "No, there is no such limit," he said. "I have been appointed on an honorary basis and I am not taking a salary, but will be paid travel and associated expenses."

Asked why he had accepted the job, Shaharyar said: "I had initially second thoughts, but as I am still playing cricket at 70, and if I had made it a profession, I perhaps might have played first-class cricket.

He concluded: "I decided to accept the job due to my passion for cricket. I have written two books on cricket which should be published soon, and one is called Cricket is a Bridge of Peace."