PCB sets up committee to probe charges against selectors

The Pakistan Cricket Board today constituted a two-member committee to probe charges of indiscipline against suspended national selector Mohammad Illyas.

Although the date for a hearing was not announced, the board has appointed Sultan Rana and Shafiq Ahmed on the committee.

Illyas was suspended from performing his duties as national selector and issued a showcase notice by the Board after giving statements in the media on the Shahid Afridi controversy and also appearing on a television show.

“All his media appearances and statements were unauthorised as he is a contracted employee of the board and has to adhere to all the code of conduct clauses for players and officials,” a board official said.

Illyas’ outburst came after Afridi accused him of conspiring against him and forming a lobby to remove him as captain after Illyas’s son-in-law Imran Farhat was dropped from the national team.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has, in recent days, come down hard on any breach of the code of conduct from players and officials.

It fined Afridi Rs 4.5 million for breach of the code and another half a million rupees on wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider.

It has also issued showcause notices to national players, Umar Akmal and Mohammad Hafeez for giving unauthorised interviews in the media while a warning was also issued to national captain Misbah-ul-Haq for a similar offence.

“The board has taken a policy decision that no player or official would be allowed to violate any clauses of their contracts with us,” legal advisor Tafazzul Rizvi said.

The lawyer for Shahid Afridi, Mehmood Mandviwalla has said the board had draconian central contracts for the players, who were not aware what they were signing.

Mehmood noted that under the contracts the board could even stop a player from earning his livelihood as it happened in the case of Afridi, which was “grossly unfair and unjust and against the constitution of the country.”

All the disciplinary issues, particularly the one involving Shahid Afridi and national coach Waqar Younis, are to be discussed today at the meeting of the governing body which started in Lahore.