LAHORE – The newly elected chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board, Ehsan Mani,made it clear on Tuesday that the PCBwould not beg or request India on playing bilateral cricket series.
“In my opinion, Indian Board has a contradictory stance and policy onplaying cricket with Pakistan; they are ready to fulfil their ICCcommitments and even ready to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup, butsurprisingly when it matters playing bilateral cricket they have adifferent stance,” he told the media at his maiden press conference afterhis election as the PCB chairman here on Tuesday at Gaddafi Stadium.Mani sounded confidence by saying “I assure you that we will not be beggingor requesting India to play bilateral cricket series. Pakistan has its ownself-esteem and prestige and we will always uphold it no matter what arethe circumstances.”
To a question, he said that he is confident that the International CricketCouncil will take a decision on merit onthe case the PCB has filed for claiming damages on India for its refusalnot to fulfil it bilateral series commitment with Pakistan.The newly elected chairman said his specific mandate is to revamp thepresent cricket structure by bringing in changes to make it qualityoriented.
“Right from grassroots level to school, club and region levels of cricket,we want to adopt a system which is ‘Pakistan cricket system’ instead oftalking about much talked Australian cricket system, based on our own needsand requirements in the game to prepare back-up squads for different tiersof our national cricket,” Mani said.He said a task force will be set up to infuse a new life in domesticcricket structure by taking all the stakeholders on board and their usefulsuggestions will be implemented for the betterment and strengthening ourdomestic cricket.
“There are lot of challenges we will be facing as our grounds are not ingood condition and our stadiums are in bad condition and with PSL matchesand foreign teams visiting Pakistan we have to look into this aspect tobetter our own cricket facilities bringing them at par with theinternational standards,” chairman PCB said.Answering a question he said he believed in good professional governance ofthe PCB as it will yield positive impact on the working of the Board andPakistan cricket.In this regard he quoted the example of Australian, England and New Zealandcricket Board where good governance has brought a positive impact on theircricket and established their respective teams status in top notch teams ofthe world.
“My utmost effort will be to introduce a new system of good governance inthe PCB for the overall development of game and to run the PCB onprofessional lines, making it an institution to sustain all sort ofpressure and its performance and progress should not hamper in anycircumstances,” he said.
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The PCB chairman said that corruption would not be tolerated at any levelin the PCB nor in its allied affairs including PSL. “All matters will bedealt in a transparent way and will be made public and we will not behiding anything in PCB,” he said adding “Auditors have raised a fewobjections during the audit of the PSL and we will be go through and willbring to task the responsible individuals, if any.”
He said a lot of effort is still needed to bring back international cricketto Pakistan. “We need to work on more confidence building measures tomotivate the foreign governments to send their teams to Pakistan which isonly possible when we work with close coordination with them onhighlighting the positive measures we have taken for ensuring the safetyand security of the foreign teams,” he said adding “Besides we have tocreate close liaison with international cricket players association to takeit into confidence on importance matters related to bring improvement onsecurity issues in Pakistan.”
He said resumption of international cricket is not an overnight process anddefiantly it will take some time and with foreign players playing inPakistan in PSL and then returning to their respective countries a positiveand good massage will be spread regarding Pakistan portraying its softimage of a country to stage international cricket events. – APP
