U-23 squad named as PCB gets down to ‘day-to-day’ business

LAHORE, Aug 1: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced the squad for the 2013 Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U-23 Emerging Cup as better sense started to prevail at the PCB after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) orders which allowed the game’s regulatory body to take decisions only on a day-to-day basis. The ACC U-23 Emerging Teams Cup is scheduled to be held from Aug 15 to 26 in Singapore. It may be mentioned that the PCB has filed a review petition against the IHC’s decision to only allow the PCB caretaker chairman Najam Sethi to take decisions on a day-to-day basis. In the review petition, the PCB has demanded extra-constitutional powers for the caretaker chairman, claiming that Sethi is not in a position to work properly in the wake of the IHC orders. However, now when the PCB has announced the U-23 team for the Emerging Cup tournament, it seems that they have finally fathomed the meaning of ‘day-to-day matters’ and are continuing to take decisions accordingly. Besides announcing the U-23 team, the PCB also extended contracts of three members of the national selection committee, namely Azhar Khan, Saleem Jaffer and Farrukh Zaman who named the team on Thursday. Besides, the caretaker chairman has also extended contracts of Intikhab Alam, Haroon Rasheed, Shafiq Ahmed and of all those whose contracts were valid till July 31. Defending its position, the PCB in a press release stated: “The team was selected by Azhar Khan, Saleem Jaffer and Farrukh Zaman who are members of the existing national selection committee which earlier selected the national team for the tour of the West Indies. On July 3, the contracts of the selectors along with a number of others were extended to Aug 31 by the PCB management. “The PCB caretaker chairman has acted after consultation with the attorney general of Pakistan with regards to authorising ‘day-to-day’ matters as directed by the Islamabad High Court,” it concluded. Hopefully, the caretaker chairman will focus all his energies on holding the PCB elections in 90 days as ordered by the IHC, instead of getting occupied with acquiring all powers including the sale of media right for Pakistan matches since it could also be sold out on series-to-series basis. Moreover, Hammad Azam has been named as captain of the U-23 team. Pakistan are placed in Group A along with India U-23s, Afghanistan and Nepal. Pakistan begin their campaign against India on August 18 at Kallang Cricket Ground in Singapore. Group B features Under-23 sides from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, along with UAE's senior team and Singapore. Squad: Hammad Azam (captain), Umar Waheed, Babar Azam, Ehsan Adil, Raza Hassan, Umar Siddique, Usman Salahuddin, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Waqas, Bilawal Bhatti, Ruman Rais, Azeem Ghumman, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Nasir Malik, Mohammad Nawaz. Officials: Aftab Baloch (manager), Mansoor Rana (coach), Usman Ghani (physio) and Ibrar Ahmed (trainer). Reserves: Taimoor Ali, Mir Hamza, Jamal Anwar, Shahzaib Ahmed Khan, Zeeshan Ali Ashraf.