There seem to be a lack of checks and balances when it comes to the PCB.
KENSWICK MEADOWS, TEXAS: This is with reference to numerous letters and columns after our humiliating defeat in the T20 championship. To tell you the truth, one could not have expected more after the abuse of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) by successive governments, followed by politicised appointments made by Asif Ali Zardari and now by the Nawaz Sharif government. How can sports develop in this country when state regulatory bodies, city governments and the education departments allow private schools and colleges to go without any sports grounds, etc?
Captain Hafeez alone cannot be blamed for the fiasco for there were numerous other officials accompanying the team, most of whom had been appointed on political recommendations, although they were neither fit nor qualified to handle the task assigned to them. What is role of the PCB chairman, the selection committee, tour manager and coach, etc? How was the selection of controversial players of ill-repute made?
There seem to be a lack of checks and balances when it comes to the PCB. Have the likes of Asif Ali Zardari not done enough damage to sports in Pakistan that now others like Hamza Shahbaz are meddling in their affairs? When will the elected political governments allow sports to develop in this country by allowing merit and fitness to be the sole criterion? Who else is responsible, if not the government, when public parks are allowed to be forcibly occupied by powerful land mafia in Karachi, Hyderabad, Multan, Larkana and Gujranwala? What stops the Sindh government from getting Kidney Hill Park vacated from notorious criminals who enjoy political patronage? These questions must be answered.
Malik T Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2014.
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