Moin's captaincy hangs in balance as PCB takes U-turn
By Samiul Hasan
KARACHI, Jan 30: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) known for creating controversies announced Tuesday that the captain for the tour to New Zealand would also be named alongwith the squad on Friday.
In an unexpected move director PCB, Brig Munawwar Rana, said from Lahore that it was not the policy of the board to appoint the captain on a long term basis.
Surprisingly, the chairman PCB, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, on Dec 10, on Dec 10, had extended Moin Khan's tenure from December 2000 to June 2001.
Zia, who was a strong supporter of the wicketkeeper until Sunday, had then said: "The PCB is satisfied with Moin's leadership and with the hope that he will improve further we have extended his captaincy tenure until June 2001."
He had added: "Moin, Inzamam-ul-Haq as vice-captain and Javed Miandad as coach have been working well and we want to give them a continuity."
Miandad has been given the mandate until the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
Nevertheless Rana, who took over the charge on Nov 21 last year, said: "PCB's policy is to appoint captain on a series-by-series basis. In the background of this policy, a captain might also be named when the team for the New Zealand tour is announced on Friday."
He added: "Until a new captain is appointed, Moin Khan will act as incharge."
Nevertheless, there was also contradiction in the statement of the PCB director as Moin, a last-minute inclusion in the teams for Peshawar and Rawalpindi one-dayers, has not been appointed Pakistan Probables captain for both the matches.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Moin's designated vice-captain and fined Rs100,000 by Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, has been made incharge of the team for Peshawar match while Wasim Akram, who was censored and fined Rs300,000 by the judge, has been named as captain for the Rawalpindi game.
The Lahore High Court judge, who investigated the charges of match-fixing and betting in Pakistan cricket, had also recommended that Akram should not be appointed captain in future because his integrity was doubtful. It was on the basis of this recommendation that Akram was replaced after the disastrous Australian tour in late 1999.
However, Rana passed on the bucket to the selectors when inquired why Moin was not the captain for the matches.
"The selectors submitted the teams and recommended the captains. The PCB just approved them," he said.
Nevertheless, chairman of selectors Wasim Bari said late on Monday evening that Moin will lead the teams while explaining that the confusion has been created because he (Moin Khan) had been added late in the day.
No matter what explanations the director PCB or chairman of selectors give on the current crisis, the fact that is rapidly establishing is that the PCB chairman is trying to make his threat look reality.
Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, on Sunday evening, threatened that the players who raised their voice against the distribution of prize-money and logo share would be thrown out.
He had said: "Anybody who creates problem like dispute over prize-money, logo money or things like that will be out of the team."
But what remains unexplained is why only the captain of the team had been targeted. He was one of the several players who were docked Rs100,000 each and paid to Javed Miandad from the $1.3million Pepsi logo deal. While a regular member of the team collected an average of Rs1.4 million, Miandad, without taking the field, took home Rs1.7million though he claims he received only Rs1.2million.
"He has been targeted on the suspicion that he leaked the confidential report to the media," a source in the cricket headquarters said.
Interestingly, the PCB chairman has yet to fire or suspend any of his Lahore secretariat staff which has been leaking stories to the media from time to time whether it be the hiring of Geoffrey Boycott at a hair-raising 30,000 pounds sterling contract for 15 days or the PCB's assets which now worth Rs570 million or the players slab formula according to which the cricketers are paid per match at home and abroad or what transpired in the advisory council meetings.
"The simple fact behind the likely sacking of Moin Khan is that the chairman doesn't want to tolerate any protest and that too against Javed Miandad who is not only the coach but also in his advisory panel," the sources said.
The sources recalled that Iqbal Qasim and Ehteshamuddin, the two selectors, were primarily shown the door while the chief selector was retained earlier this month because they had objected against the interference of Miandad in selection matters.
As the PCB officials gear up to appoint a new captain, most likely being Inzamam-ul-Haq, the players were chalking out strategy as to how to counter the situation.
The latest word from the Pakistan camp was that the players were planning to meet Lt Gen Tauqir Zia during the Rawalpindi match and highlight their grievances and dismay against the deduction of Rs100,000 each from their logo share.
"There is no doubt that we all, including the junior players, are unhappy with the way our finances have been handled by the board. We want to explain everything to the chairman provided he is willing to give us a patient hearing," a senior player said.
But the PCB director said until Tuesday, no official request from the players to meet the chairman had received.
The present cricket hierarchy has made it a habit of triggering avoidable controversies before the start of any important assignment.
In May last year as Pakistan prepared to take on the West Indies in the third Test at St John's, Antigua, Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum's report was released and then two days before Pakistan was scheduled to face New Zealand in the semi-final of the ICC knock-out tournament in Kenya last October, the PCB sent a recommendation to President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar to reopen judicial inquiries into allegations that Pakistan threw away World Cup matches against India and Bangladesh.
The report posted above by paglu and this report from DAWN suggests that its not the players fault atleast this time. Otherwise the tone of the report in the News in particular would not have been in favor of the players. Lets see what happends. We can only hope for the best.