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Pak to get new skipper, selection committee

The upcoming executive council meeting of the Pakistan Cricket Board, scheduled for July 5 at the Gaddafi Stadium, could have far-reaching consequences for cricket in the country.

On the agenda is the appointment of a long term captain for the Pakistan side, as also the constitution of a new national selection committee.

As of this moment, there is, de facto, no selection committee. Salim Altaf, chairman of the committee, resigned in protest, when pace ace Wasim Akram was sent back by tour manager Khalid Mahmood midway through the side's tour of South Africa.

But perhaps of greater importance is the meeting of the PCB probe committee, investigating allegations into betting and match-fixing.

The committee, comprising chairman Justice Ijaz Yousaf, PCB secretary Waqar Ahmad, and members Nusrat Azeem and Mian Mohammad Munir, will meet shortly before the executive council's own meeting.

Expected to appear before the committee are erstwhile skipper Ramiz Raja, who has not honoured two previous summons, as also Haroon Rashid, who recently retired as coach of the team, and pace bowler Aqib Javed.

At the previous meeting of the probe committee, former manager Intikhab Alam had testified that some international matches were being 'fixed' by some of the Pakistan players, though he did not go so far as to name the players, claiming that he had no concrete evidence.

One of the games the former Pakistan star (and erstwhile skipper of Surrey in the English county circuit) claimed had been fixed was the 1994-'95 Singer Cup fixture in Sri Lanka, where Pakistan, needing 170 for a win, were dismissed under 150 after being, at one stage, a comfortable 100 for one.

Intikhab told the committe that after the game, a player had come up to him and confessed to his involvement in the fixing.

Subsequent to the incident, Intikhab had made the players swear on the Quran that they would not fix any more games. However, the former manager said, a few games had been deliberately thrown even after that.

Intikhab believes that five or six players are involved in the fixing incidents, though he says he would rather not name names until and unless he has some concrete evidence to back his statements with. "That kind of evidence, however, no one can ever get unless someone who is actually involved decides to make a clean breast of things," Intikhab said at the time.

The probe committee, meanwhile, is expected to hold a few more meetings before submitting its findings to the Senate sub-committee on sports and culture.

The deadline for submission of the report is July 31.