Selection committee disbanded by PCB

lahore — In what appeared to be another cosmetic surgery of cricket, the Pakistan Cricket Board has disbanded the national selection committee and removed T20 captain Shahid Afridi and head coach Waqar Younis against the backdrop of poor performances of the team in the T20 Asia and World cups.

“Following the receipt of a report on Friday by a special committee on the team’s poor performance in the Asia Cup and the ICC World T20, the PCB chairman, after having studied the report and considered the findings and recommendations (of the committee), is pleased to announce the following decisions to address the problems in Pakistan cricket,” said a PCB press release issued on Monday.

“Having reviewed the report of the special committee, the chairman has accepted the recommendations therein with regard to a change in the selection committee (headed by Haroon Rasheed). “Shahid Afridi was appointed T20 captain till ICC WT20 2016. With the event now concluded and as per the recommendations of the special committee, the PCB will shortly appoint a new T20 captain in place of Shahid Afridi,” it said.

“Waqar Younis has publically resigned from his position and the PCB will now initiate the process of inducting a new coach for Pakistan team. For this purpose a panel comprising Wasim Akram and Rameez Raja is being formed to assist (the board) in finding a replacement for Waqar at the earliest,” the PCB said.

Wasim was also included in a similar panel which had picked up Waqar Younis as head coach in 2014.

PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan told Dawn that since Wasim and Rameez would be acting as commentators in the next edition of IPL (Indian Premier League), they would have an opportunity to interact with foreign coaches there to consider them along with local coaches. —