The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked former pacer Wahab Riaz and former all-rounder Abdul Razzaq from the selection committee in the aftermath of the team’s failure to advance from the group stages of the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies, reported ESPN Cricinfo. A fallout after Pakistan’s dismal show in the T20 World Cup, where they were knocked out from the group stage after losing to the USA and India, was on the expected lines, and the first blow fell on the selection committee.
Barely four months after restructuring of the selection committee, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi has decided to sack two noted members of the selection committee, leaving it with only five members instead of the original seven. The remaining five selection committee members are the head coach and captain of the respective formats, Mohammad Yousaf, Asad Shafiq and Bilal Afzal, a data analyst. The PCB are unlikely to replace Riaz and Razzaq in the committee.
The report added that Razzaq was also relieved from the women’s team’s selection committee duties. Riaz’s fall has been more rapid. Believed to be a close confidant of the PCB chief, Riaz had served in his cabinet as caretaker sports minister while Naqvi was appointed caretaker chief minister of Punjab and followed him to the PCB, where he was initially appointed chief selector.
His position always garnered a lot of attention. The former pacer faced a lot of criticism after appointing former captain Salman Butt as one of the advisors. His differences with Pakistan’s ace pacer Haris Rauf were out in the open. Rauf was scrapped of a central contract and slammed by Riaz over his reluctance to tour Australia with the Test team. His contract was reinstated after about six weeks with the intervention of Naqvi, who termed it as a “misunderstanding” and a “wrong decision” from the selectors’ part.
Riaz soon lost his post as chief selector as the revamped committee gave equal importance to all seven members. However, the public still saw Riaz as the de facto head, which bothered the former cricketer as he was singled out for criticism whenever the team didn’t do well.
Wahab Riaz had also travelled with the Pakistan side to the T20 World Cup as senior team manager, another duty he will likely be stripped of.
The report adds that PCB are set to bring back the old model of a five-member selection committee with a chief selector. The men’s team has seen six chief selectors over the past four years, with Wahab, Haroon Rashid, Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Wasim and Misbah-ul-Haq all serving brief stints.
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