KARACHI: Javed Miandad yesterday quit as Pakistan Cricket Board’s Director General after the Board chairman, Ijaz Butt, refused to provide him “enough room to work for the promotion of national cricket.”
Miandad told Arab News that he was dissatisfied with the revised job description devised for him by the board chairman and refused to sign a contract offered to him on Tuesday.
“I was hurt to know that as Director General, my role would be to look after domestic cricket and help develop the grounds,” said the former Pakistan captain, who was appointed as Director General two months ago but was working without getting any salary.
“The PCB can appoint a manager to perform those roles, they don’t need me,” he stressed.
Miandad, 51, took over as the Director General last November. At that time a circular was issued by the Board, stating that his would be the number two position in the PCB after the chairman.
But within weeks, Miandad was sidelined with the Board’s top brass deciding against consulting him over key issues like the players’ central contracts and more recently the appointment of Younis Khan as the new captain.
It is learnt through reliable sources that, the board kingpins did not even incorporate the position of Director General in the revised PCB constitution that is expected to be given final shape soon.
Miandad, who is Pakistan’s highest run-getter (8832 runs from 124 matches) in Test history, was left fuming on Tuesday when Butt overruled his suggestion that the PCB should give Shoaib Malik another chance as Pakistan’s captain by replacing the all-rounder with Younis Khan.
A contract brought to Miandad by fellow ex-Test cricketer Waseem Bari, now working as PCB’s HR chief, turned out to be the final straw.
Miandad was offered a salary of Rs 500,000 which is equal to the pay given to Saleem Altaf, PCB’s chief operating officer and Intikhab Alam, the Pakistan coach. However, Miandad said that it wasn’t the salary package that irked him.
“What I wanted was enough room to carry out my plans that are aimed for the promotion of Pakistan’s cricket,” said a disgruntled Miandad.
“If you want results from me then you have to give me enough powers.
“I’ve given more than 40 years of my life to cricket,” he said.
“Nobody in the Board knows more about cricket than me. I only joined the Board to help it put Pakistan’s cricket on the right track but unfortunately things didn’t go well,” lamented Miandad, who had served as Pakistan’s coach on three different occasions in the past.
Miandad’s decision to quit PCB wasn’t a big surprise. He had developed differences with other senior players and even refused to go to Lahore to witness the series decider against Sri Lanka last Saturday after being kept out of the match’s organizing committee. It was only after some persuasion by Butt that Miandad finally accepted the invite for the one-dayer.
As DG, Miandad played a big role in lining up a hurriedly-arranged series with Sri Lanka soon after India blocked its cricket team’s tour of Pakistan. He had made big plans for domestic cricket and also offered to guide the country’s struggling cricketers.
Miandad said that he had no hard feeling about quitting PCB. But he did take a swipe at a number of recent decisions taken by the Board. The Board’s biggest blunder, he believes, is Malik’s sacking in the wake of the series defeat against Sri Lanka.
“You can’t kick out a captain on the performance of one or two matches. That’s like setting a bad example,” he said. “The only way you can go forward is by giving your players due respect. The way the PCB has treated Malik, there are no guarantees that Younis (Khan) will not suffer a similar fate in the future,” stressed Miandad.
Miandad made it clear that during his two-month stint as DG, he did not take a single penny from the PCB.
The legendary batsman said that he would now be focusing on his assignment as Pakistan’s cricket ambassador to China. “That is a very big challenge for me,” said Miandad, who was appointed as cricket ambassador directly by President Asif Zardari.
