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Saeed Anwar, one of the best openers in present day cricket, slapped the face of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) when he declared himself fully fit for the coming Test series against New Zealand.

The opener was not considered by the PCB selection committee claiming that his fitness was in doubt.

The PCB chief, time and again has been suggesting that players were the best judge of their fitness. He suggested the theory of rotation among a select band of players to save them from burn-out. Nobody can disagree with the PCB boss on his logic of burn-out. However, he has repeatedly said that the final selection of matches lie with the players themselves. But in the case of Saeed Anwar the same standard has not been applied.

It only shows double standard of the PCB when Saeed Anwar was not consulted and someone or some people around the high ups decided themselves to rule out the classy opener. There were some whispers that he lacks match practice.

Of course Saeed Anwar has not played competitive cricket for nearly six months. But he has to make a beginning if he is still good enough to be included in the team preparing for the World Cup next year.

The functioning of the PCB is beyond imagination. Its working is as unpredictable as the team's performance graph which is most unpredictable. There is jubilation on Pakistan's thumping win over Sri Lanka in the final of the Sharjah Cup this week.

It was nothing so surprising. The team's performance is unpredictable and on a day when everything was in their favour and they were going great guns, the Sri Lanka team had the misfortune of losing their only match-winning bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan who had to leave the field with a dislocated shoulder before he could even spin a single delivery.

This unforeseen incident electrified the morale of the Pakistan team and played a demoralising effect on the Islanders. The rest is history as Pakistan amassed 295, a match winning total.

The PCB chief was so overjoyed that he announced a bonus of three lakh rupees to every member of the Pakistan contingent which included `extra baggage' who was not a member of the team as well as the counselor specially flown in. It seems as if the PCB has turned into a charitable trust and the Pakistani cricketers are its only beneficiaries.

What was so great about the Sharjah victory. It was the same Pakistan team which failed to score 19 runs in the last three overs against the same outfit. And if one goes with the entire achievement of the Pakistan team which has been boasting of world's best talent for almost two decades, it has just one World Cup and one Asian Championship title to its credit.

Sharjah and Sahara Cups have no credentials. They are just `Nataks' of cricket staged by the international event managers to mint money from advertising and other hidden sources. If the overall performance at Sharjah is taken into consideration one would like to ask the manager and the coach what were they doing when Rashid Latif and Wasim Akram were struggling to score 19 runs from 18 balls and failed.

Manager Yawar Saeed, after the match said that the players made a mistake as they did not ask for the change of the ball which they should have done.

If the players in the heat of the situation failed to demand the change, the wiser men who were sitting outside should have sent in the message. One thinks that the team management was busy counting their gains.

The PCB has an army of officers to run the show on fat salaries. If the team coach can be paid around Rs 2,40,000 for a month does he deserve a bonus too? Secondly one player who was not among the 15 was also paid the bonus of Rs 300,000. One has nothing against Faisal Iqbal he is a budding youngster. Now for no fault of his own this poor chap is being made target of criticism just because he is being pushed into the team when there is no place for him at the moment.

One hopes Faisal does not meet the same fate which Shoaib Mohammad met as he was pushed into the Pakistan team rather prematurely by his supporters and when Shoaib really made a mark and deserved a place in the team he was ignored because of the prejudices and bias of the then cricket board and the selectors.

If the PCB is really interested in grooming Faisal he should be kept in the cricket academy and given chance when there is an opportunity.

Faisal has toured with the Pakistan team to Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, was a member of the team in the Asian Test Championship staged in Pakistan early this year, then was a member of the team in the off-shore Test series in Sharjah and again was a non playing member of the team in the just concluded Sharjah Cup.

He has perhaps set a new Pakistan record of touring with the Pakistan team. One wonders will his career end as a tourist. His supporters should think over it and plan out his career.

And lastly one would like the PCB to cut down it's extravagant expenditure. The payment to the players, officials and non active members should correspond with the overall economic condition of the country. Cricketers are not rare commodities.

Pakistan hockey team has won more laurels for the country but its players were never honored or given financial gains. Can one imagine that a win at Sharjah made everybody on the bandwagon richer by at least by Rs three lakh.

Even a country like America, the world's richest nation never showers it's Olympic champions with such financial gains. How a poor country like ours can afford such a luxury is beyond imagination.

President Pervez Musharraf who every time advocates for accountability should give a look at the PCB as the money being given to individuals is after all public money and instead of making individuals rich it should be spent on development of cricket in particular and sports in general. The autonomy given to the PCB is perhaps being misused and it should be stopped immediately.

© Dawn