Lahore, June 02: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports has come down heavily on the PCB for meting out different treatment to Pakistan players banned and fined by the Board, and insisted on the inclusion of former skipper Younis Khan in the Asia Cup squad.
The Standing Committee on Sports was unhappy with the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to revoke the one-year ban on former captain Shoaib Malik.
It felt that Younis and pacer Naved-ul-Hasan received unfair treatment from the PCB as compared to Malik, and warned the Board to stop practicing such double standards.
”The board should follow the same guidelines when dealing with the players. The same criteria should be followed with all the players and having separate policy with different players is not acceptable.
”PCB has relaxed the ban on Malik but Younis Khan and Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan have been treated harshly, which is very unfair,” Iqbal Mohammad Ali, chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports, was quoted as saying by ‘The News’. Iqbal also said Younis was an asset of the country and they would try to get him into the team for the Asia Cup. ”I don’t know why they are delaying Younis’ case. They would be announcing squad for Asia Cup on June 3 and the camp would be starting on June 5, so there is little time. However, we will try our best to have Younis included in the squad for Asia Cup,” he added.
Iqbal was also expecting big changes in the PCB top brass in the coming times. ”I am hoping that the PCB Patron in Chief President Asif Ali Zardari must have taken the notice of the absurd way the board has been managed. So I expect PCB would go through drastic changes soon.” Meanwhile, former PCB CEO Arif Abbasi backed Younis and said Pakistan had found a capable skipper in him, but the board did not utilise him properly. ”I don’t see anything in Afridi and there is nothing in him for which he may be appointed as a skipper. Younis was a good captain but the board failed to recognise his potential and wasted him,” he said.
Arif was also not in favour of PCB’s decision to lift the ban on Malik, though he said the Standing Committee has no right to interfere in the board’s internal affairs since it is not a stakeholder in the PCB.
——-Agencies