Giles Clarke to visit Pakistan and request Zardari to reduce political intervention in Pakistan cricket

Pakistan News: Giles Clarke to request Asif Ali Zardari

By Faisal Caesar

The Pakistan president Asif Ali Khan Zardari will be requested by Giles Clarke, the ECB boss to reduce political intervention the country’s cricket as he is planning to visit Pakistan.

The ICC at its annual meeting at Hong Kong last month adopted the need for political independence world wide and has given Pakistan two years time settle its constitution.

Giles who chaired the ICC Pakistan task team which recommended that freedom from political freedom from political intervention will be significant in improving the cricket structure in Pakistan.

But Pakistan did not object to the proposal at the annual meeting in Hong Kong last month, but argued that 'the circumstances in Pakistan are unique' and that the system 'cannot certainly be labelled as faulty'.

The PCB rejected the task team's recommendation that 'captains should be selected by a selection committee, and that the system where a captain is appointed by the PCB chairman, currently Ijaz Butt, and approved by the governing board, should be abolished.'

'We respectfully disagree with this recommendation. In Pakistan the system of selecting a captain is different. No reason has been given by the Pakistan task team in support of its recommendation that a selection committee is the best judge of who the captain of Pakistan should be. If this recommendation is based on what other countries follow, it may not work for Pakistan. Again the authority to nominate the captain has been delegated by the governing board to the chairman,' PCB said in a statement.

So, Clarke wants to go to Pakistan to ensure the task team's reasons are clearly outlined, and to counter criticism from Pakistan that the task team did not spend enough time in the country before making recommendations intended to improve Pakistan cricket's efficiency and integrity'.

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