Thaindian News

London, July 15 (IANS) Giles Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, is planning to visit Pakistan and request the country’s president Asif Ali Zardari, chief patron of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), to reduce political involvement in the game.

The ICC at its annual meeting last month in Hong Kong adopted the need for political independence worldwide, and gave Pakistan two years to adjust their constitution.

Clarke also chaired an ICC Pakistan task team, which recommended that freedom from political intervention will significant in improving the management of the game in Pakistan.

The Guardian reported that 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 daily said that 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”.

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.