KARACHI: Chief selector Aamer Sohail’s statement blaming the Pakistan team management for the “disappointing” performance of the team in England has not pleased the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
PCB Chief Executive Rameez Raja after joining office on Tuesday was not at all pleased to learn about Sohail’s statement which was indirect contradiction to the general feeling about the performance of the team and the captain and coach.
When asked about Sohail’s statement, Rameez made it clear that steps were required to ensure that unnecessary statements from any quarter were curbed to avoid misunderstanding or confusion.
Aamer Sohail in a hard-hitting statement on Monday blamed the team management for the NatWest challenge series defeat to England. His statement contradicted the views of Rashid Latif and Javed Miandad who described the performance of the young team as satisfactory and encouraging.
“We will take steps to ensure there is a control on statements from every quarter. It is not good for Pakistan cricket or the team,” Rameez said. “The Pakistan team is currently in a rebuilding process and it fought hard in England. We require to be careful with our choice of words at this stage,” he said. Sohail, a former Pakistan captain said that the team was not handled properly by the team management according to the need of hour.
**“We played with many all-rounders and if I am not wrong we largely depended on them (all-rounders) which showed that things were not handled the way they should have been done,” he said.
There have been signs of discord between the chief selector and the captain since both were appointed to these positions in a major revamp by the Pakistan board after the World Cup.**
Their have also been reports of the Board Chairman Lt. General Tauqir Zia having to intervene in the selection of the team for England after differences of opinion erupted between Sohail and Latif, both former team-mates at the international and domestic level.
The chief selector in particular has become famous for his statements, which normally are offensive at some level to someone. Since taking over as chief selector, Sohail has been complaining about the media and its inconsistent views on selection matters.