Najam Sethi meets board officials, selectors

KARACHI: A day after being appointed interim chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Najam Sethi spent a gruelling day at the board’s headquarters in Lahore meeting senior board officials,s including the selection committee headed by Iqbal Qasim.

Sethi was briefed for three hours regarding matters related to next year’s budget, selection of the national team as well the seniors’ outfit for next month’s tour of the West Indies.

“The chairman queried coach Dav Whatmore about the team’s show,” a PCB official told The Express Tribune. “The selectors want a fitness test of players before team selection and they discussed it with the chairman.

“Several changes are on the cards with Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat highly likely to lose their berth as selectors want to give preference to youngsters. Shahid Afridi’s comeback is still a possibility.”

‘Selectors have all the power’       

According to Sethi, the national squad for the tour of West Indies as well as the U19 team would be announced next week.

“I will not interfere in team selection,” the chairman told a press conference in Lahore.

“But then they’ll be responsible for the team’s results – they will be praised if the team wins and will be questioned in case of poor performance.”

When the topic of presenting next year’s budget was brought up, Sethi said it was among his immediate tasks. “It is supposed to be presented before June 30 and the chief financial officer has been working on it, finding a way to cut back expenses and increase revenue.”

Sethi added that he, along with the board’s chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed, will leave tomorrow for the International Cricket Council’s Annual Conference in London.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2013.

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