The Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday asked chief selector Mohsin Khan not to address a press conference without its permission after the former opener threatened to resign from his post over differences with fellow selectors on the selection of the 15-man Test squad for a series against the West Indies.
The PCB managed to persuade Mohsin not to hold a press conference on Wednesday evening to outline his grievances that the Board has changed the recommended squad for the Test series in the West Indies on the suggestions of national team coach Waqar Younis. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the PCB said that Mohsin did not get the Board’s approval for his planned press conference.
An official of the Board said that Mohsin has been asked to meet the PCB management today at the PCB head office in Lahore. The management will meet him to discuss the issues, he added. A PCB spokesman said that the selection of players for any series is the selector’s job but its final approval lies with the Board chief. “If Mohsin has any complaint, he can convey it directly to PCB chief,” he said.
The trouble has been brewing since yesterday after Mohsin made his views on the selected squad public. “The squad we had sent to the Chairman for approval was changed. What I know is it was done on behest of Waqar and I don’t think the coach has any business interfering in our domain,” Mohsin had said. The Board’s release on Wednesday said that Mohsin was requested by the chairman to come to the PCB headquarters to discuss the selected squad. “He could not come due to his wife’s illness.
Now according to media reports, he was supposed to hold a press conference today without prior permission of PCB. This would be a violation of Code of Conduct and would be unfortunate,” the release said. The release also made it clear that selectors pick the members of the squad which is then sent to Chairman PCB for his approval. “This is mandatory. If required, the Chairman PCB consults with the chairman of the selection committee on the selected squad and after due deliberation the squad is approved and announced.
“National selection committee and tour selection committee are two independent bodies and though, at times, they seek mutual input but in no case one can interfere in the matters of the other,” the release added. But Mohsin insisted that the players recommended by the selection committee were changed and this was unacceptable. “I have no quarrel with the Board but my viewpoint is clear that the selectors should be allowed to do their job.
We took up this challenge at a time when Pakistan cricket was struggling after the spot-fixing scandal and we managed to put together a decent squad. Now we can’t allow anyone to interfere,” Mohsin said. The chief selector did not, however, elaborate on the players on whom the differences had arisen between the selectors and the coach. But the sources said that Mohsin didn’t want Umar Akmal in the Test squad and had also recommended the names of Khurrum Manzoor and wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal. But all three recommendations were rejected by the chairman of the Board. Since Ijaz Butt took over as board chairman, three chief selectors have resigned due to differences over selection policy, including Salahuddin Ahmed, Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim.