Selection committee plays down rift reports

Pakistan cricket selectors have downplayed the reports of a rift in the selection committee and said it would disturb the morale of the team on a challenging tour of England.

Reports of the conflict emerged after a member of the selection committee, Salim Jaffer, denied having a say in selecting the Test squad that was unveiled together with the Twenty20 squad by chief selector Mohsin Khan in Sri Lanka. According to Jaffer, the selectors were of the consent that only the Twenty20 squad would be announced and that discussions on the Test squad were still pending.

However, the selectors were quick to play down the rift adding that the Test squad was chosen from the 35-man squad that the committee had selected.

“There was confusion among the selectors but now things have settled down,” a member of the selection committee told The Express Tribune. “We should understand how important the tour is so should refrain from creating controversies.”

The current selection committee, apart from Khan and Jaffer, consists of Mohammad Ilyas and Azhar Khan as regular members while Asif Baloch and Farrukh Zaman are the co-opted members. Jaffer is the only selector that was part of the three previous committees headed by Iqbal Qasim, Abdul Qadir and Salahuddin Ahmed.

“The conflict was not on the individuals selected but the announcement of two teams at the same time as the chief selector was supposed to announce only the T20 squad in Sri Lanka,” another selector told The Express Tribune. “I don’t know why the plans changed but I spoke to Khan on the phone and he has assured me that we will sit down and discuss the matter once the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ijaz Butt arrives back in the country. Our suggestions were taken on the phone and things aren’t that bad that we should all resign from our roles.”

Although the chief selector has yet to make any statements, the meeting between he chairman and the selection committee is scheduled to take place on July 5 after Butt returns from the ICC Annual meeting currently taking place in Singapore.

Published in The  Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2010.