KARACHI: 


Iqbal Mohammad Ali, chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports, on Tuesday slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for lifting a one-year ban on former captain Shoaib Malik, warning the Board to end double standards.

“The board should follow the same guidelines when dealing with the players. The same criteria should be followed with all the players and having separate policy with different players is not acceptable. PCB has relaxed the ban on Malik but Younis Khan and Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan have been treated harshly, which is very unfair,” Iqbal told reporters here. He said that former skipper Younis Khan is an asset of the country and they would try to get him into the team for the Asia Cup.

“I don’t know why they are delaying Younis’ case. They would be announcing squad for Asia Cup on June 3 and the camp would be starting on June 5, so there is little time. However, we will try our best to have Younis included in the squad for Asia Cup,” he added.

He further said that he is expecting big changes in the PCB top brass. “I am hoping that the PCB Patron in Chief President Asif Ali Zardari must have taken the notice of the absurd way the board has been managed. So I expect PCB would go through drastic changes soon.”

Former PCB CEO Arif Abbasi said that Pakistan found a capable skipper in Younis, however the board wasted him. “I don’t see anything inAfridi and there is nothing in him for which he may be appointed as a skipper. Younis was a good captain but the board failed to recognize his potential and wasted him,” Arif said.

Arif also criticised the board for lifting the ban on former skipper Shoaib Malik. He further said that the Standing committee on boards has no right to interfere in the board’s internal affairs since it is not even a PCB stakeholder.