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No major decisions at PCB's nine-hour meeting

The PCB's first major meeting in five months, which went on for nine hours, resulted in few major decisions being taken

Umar Farooq
Umar Farooq
01-Dec-2011
Zaka Ashraf, the new PCB chairman

The issue of democratisation of the PCB was one of the major issues that came up for discussion  •  Associated Press

There was no decision on the appointment of a full-time Pakistan coach at the PCB's first major meeting in five months. Some members also expressed concern that the ICC's directive from its Hong Kong conference about the democratising of member boards was not being addressed.
The board did approve the formation of a vigilance and security division in the PCB that will be responsible for managing issues related to corruption and security. The division will be headed by a senior retired police or army official.
The meeting, chaired by the new PCB chief Zaka Ashraf, had as many as 14 items on its agenda, including a presentation on cricket infrastructure in Pakistan, the appointment of a new director for co-ordination - who will head the chairman's secretariat - and approval of a benevolent funds policy for players, umpires and scorers among others.
The ICC's directive calling on member boards to democratise within a two-year deadline came up for discussion even though it was not on the agenda.
A member of the board told ESPNcricinfo that the meeting's participants were quite concerned about the lack of progress in this regard. "We have suggested putting all the 11 elected members from the regional cricket associations in the governing board and giving them the right of vote," the member said.
"The cricketers and the technocrats should keep their places to give their inputs but without the voting rights, and this is how we can make a democratic body. Unfortunately, nothing has been done so far about it. Though this item wasn't on the agenda, we insisted this be included in the debate."
A PCB release said the views of the governing board members on democratisation had been noted.
The PCB's chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed, after the meeting at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, said: "There was a lengthy list of agendas and each drew a long discussion. There were several matters discussed and members were asked for their views. The opinions were frank."
The meeting included a presentation on the infrastructure plan to establish more academies in the country, there were discussions regarding the renovation work at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium and the board was also updated about the new ground at Garhi Khuda Bux that was given a completion deadline of December 29. There were also concerns expressed about the delays in the building of the Multan and Karachi cricket academies. A committee comprising Javed Miandad, who has worked with players at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, and Mir Haider Ali Talpur, the president of the Karachi Cricket Association, was formed to visit these projects and present their report.
A new coordination division was also approved for better coordination with government departments and within the PCB, and to bring the grievances and inputs of regional cricket associations and other domestic cricketing bodies to the PCB.

Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo's Pakistan correspondent