Karachi, August 14: The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt said he had no issues with chief operating officer Saleem Altaf but made it clear that any official who was of no use to the board would be shown the door.
His comments came after a governing council meeting here in which rumors were rife that Butt would ask the members to remove Altaf as the COO because of the growing differences between the two.
Altaf had already stated that he had smelt such a move was going to come against him but that he was not prepared to go down without a fight.
Asked about his differences with Altaf, who also attend the meeting, Butt said that with changing time relations also change.
“I also read in the media about me trying to remove Altaf, but I don’t know if that is correct,” he said.
However, well-placed sources said Altaf, a former Test player himself, had used his strong political and bureaucratic connections in Islamabad to stall the move of his ouster had and also indirectly threatened to take the PCB and Butt to court if he was dismissed illegally.
Altaf was also sacked by former chairman Nasim Ashraf last year but he went to court and won the case to get his post back.
Altaf when contacted said the issue of removing the COO never came up for discussion at the general council meeting and it was dominated by 2011 World Cup matters.
But sources said Butt was trying to get Altaf a paid position on the 2011 World Cup central organizing committee so that he could get rid of him from the PCB.
“Yes that is something Butt is working on as the ICC has asked Pakistan to nominate two persons for the central organizing committee and secretariat. As it is Wasim Bari, the Director of Human Resources is also keen to occupy the COO’s position and is said to be behind the campaign to oust Altaf,” a source said.
Meanwhile Butt also said that the Pakistan team would travel to India for the 2011 World Cup only if the government here gives them permission.
“Our team can only play in India if our government allows it. And if we have a situation where our team is not able to travel to India then the World Cup could be affected or cancelled,” Butt said.
“While it is a fact that we cannot host the World Cup matches due to security situation in the country and playing our share of matches at neutral venues is also ruled out but the ICC has otherwise accepted most of our demands,” Butt said.
He also made it clear that Pakistan’s move to start a legal challenge against the ICC for moving the World Cup matches had paid dividends and was not a waste of money.
“Before we moved a legal notice the ICC and other host countries were not willing to listen to our please but then they came to the negotiating table,” he said.
Butt lamented that Pakistan was left alone by the other joint host countries – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the World Cup issue.
“They let us down that is why we lost the World Cup matches. Worse the attack on the Sri Lankan team was a big setback for us,” Butt added.
—–PTI