KARACHI, 21 November 2003 — Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has blamed chief selector Aamir Sohail for creating an unwarranted turmoil in Pakistan cricket.
He has also accused him of creating hurdles in the formation of a well-knit, confident and secure Pakistan outfit.
Latif”s serious charges have come just 24 hours after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tried to negotiate a peace deal between captain Inzamam ul-Haq and coach Javed Miandad with Sohail over selection matters.
The board also warned all three to behave themselves or face the prospect of being sacked from their jobs after they got embroiled in a public row. The row started soon after Sohail announced a pool of players for the coming home series against New Zealand and Inzamam and Miandad accused him of not consulting them.
Joining the debate on the role of the chief selector, Latif also called upon the board to put a stop to “ever increasing indisciplined behavior” from the chief selector.
In a column for “The News on Sunday” newspaper published on Sunday, Latif who resigned as captain just before the home series against South Africa in controversial circumstances admitted that he had problems with Sohail as captain.
The 34-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman withdraw from the Test series against South Africa on personal grounds after playing in the five one-day matches. The selectors have not picked him for the one-day series against New Zealand.
Latif said he had never brought forth his differences with Sohail for the integrity of the country and to protect the players.
He hit out at the board for allowing Sohail to give rash statements on selection matters, players and the team management and for not stopping him up from criticizing his own players on television as a commentator.
Former Test captain Zaheer Abbas has also held the board responsible for allowing too much of a free hand to the chief selector.
In his weekly column for “Daily Dawn”, he accused Sohail of trying to destroy the very fabric of Pakistan cricket.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar could face an inquiry from the International Cricket Council (ICC) for speaking on the three matches ban imposed on him by match-referee Clive Lloyd during the recent series against South Africa.
This correspodnent has learnt that although the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has already show caused him for his statements in the Indian and Pakistani media, Shoaib could face more serious problems for commenting on his ban to an Indian web site. Shoaib has told the Cricketnext web site about his recent punishment that the ICC needs to be more consistent with its decisions.
The ICC remains very sensitive about players giving comments on the umpires or match referees or their decisions and recently several players and team officials have been fined or banned for commenting on decisions of the umpires or referees.
The PCB has show caused Shoaib for giving a statement somewhere that if he wanted to be Pakistan captain he could be so in a day’s time but at the moment he didn’t want the captaincy.
