PCB organises meet to discuss names for ODI captaincy

Karachi: Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday held a high level meeting of it's cricket committee in Lahore to discuss probable candidates for the ODI captaincy and the national selection committee.

According to well-informed sources in the PCB, names of Sohaib Maqsood, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Sarfraz Ahmed and Wahab Riaz were discussed in the meeting which was attended by board chairman Shaharyar Khan and his predecessor Najam Sethi.

"Basically the meeting was called to seek views of senior stake holders in the board on who should be the new ODI captain and the formation of the selection committee with Shaharyar and Sethi also giving their opinion and listening to others," one source told PTI.

He said Shaharyar, who will be in Karachi at the weekend meeting with stakeholders, is expected to announce the new set up next week.

"The meeting was an interesting one as it was apparent that there is some difference of opinion between Shaharyar and Sethi who now heads the powerful executive committee in the PCB specially on the future role of Moin Khan in Pakistan cricket," the source said.

He said Sethi as expected had pushed for Moin to continue as chief selector, pointing out that the team selected by him didn't do badly in the World Cup.

"But Shaharyar made it clear that he wanted to bring in fresh faces and youth in the selection committee and the possibility of appointing former Test pacer Saleem Jaffer as chief selector with Bazid Khan, Rao Ifthikar and Basit Ali as members was discussed as well," the source said.

He said majority of the people who attended the meeting agreed that there was a need to bring in more discipline for players and curb their powers.

The source said that it was also agreed that the new selection committee should be made up of former players willing to give their time to the job and willing to visit grounds and scout new talent countrywide.

"That is why the names of Jaffer, Bazid, Basit and Rao are under consideration now. Shaharyar himself has ruled out giving the selectors post to tried and tested names like Wasim Bari, Mohsin Khan, Iqbal Qasim or Salahuddin Ahmed."

Board officials Haroon Rasheed, Intikhab Alam, Zakir Khan and chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed also attended the meeting.

The source said there was also some discussion on how long the board should allow Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi to continue as captain of the Test and T20 sides.