Karachi, Dec 17 (IANS) The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) absence from a meeting with the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sport prompted chairman Jamshed Dasti to call for changes within the board.
The PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, was the main target of the committee that met Thursday in Islamabad to ponder the participation of Pakistani players in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Dasti, a member of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), slammed Butt and company for skipping the meeting, saying that they are non-serious about running Pakistan cricket. He also said he would recommend Pakistan president Asif Zardari to make sweeping changes within the cricket board.

“The attitude by PCB officials including chairman, Ijaz Butt, is unacceptable,” said Dasti.

“Ijaz Butt is medically unfit to run PCB affairs,” he stressed and said that the ageing PCB chief cannot run cricket affairs properly. “We will give our recommendation to President Zardari to remove Ijaz Butt from the top PCB post.”

The sports committee member wanted to discuss PCB’s role in the IPL after learning through media reports that Pakistani players were being undermined by the IPL officials.

Earlier this month, IPL chairman Lalit Modi ruled out the participation of Pakistani players in the cash-rich league, saying that they had failed to obtain Indian visas ahead of the extended deadline.

However, a couple of days later, Indian authorities announced that they are in the process to issue visas to five Pakistani players for the IPL.

PCB officials have since then expressed hope that their players will be allowed to feature in the third edition of IPL to be held in March-April.