Islamabad - Pakistan women team captain Sana Mir  has declined to attend the camp for New Zealand series to be played in UAE.

It is very unfortunate that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has given clean chit to flopped women team captain Sana Mir while a capable coach Sabih Azhar was sacked over poor performance of the team during the ICC Women’s World Cup in London. Sana was mainly responsible for the debacle in the recently-concluded Women’s World Cup, where she, along with some certain players, not only underperformed, but also brought huge misery to the team.

Rather than taking notice of Sana and company’s dirty politics and showing them the door, women team chief selector M Ilyas not only invited same old players, who are dictating terms and blackmailing the board, but also invited Sana, who instead of being humbled and thankful to the selectors for keeping faith in her pathetic leadership, bluntly wrote letters to her fellow players and declined to attend the camp for the New Zealand series to be played in UAE.

It is high time when PCB chairman Najam Sethi must act swiftly and no matter how important player or even captain Sana is, she must be given peace of mind and reminder that no one is above sports and everyone has to follow set criteria. Had this act done by a male cricketer, he would have been reprimanded without a second delay and PCB’s highly hypoactive lobby would have jump in.

The PCB must issue show-cause notice to Sana and seek explanation on what grounds and authority, she wrote letter to fellow players and how on earth Sana was given such unlimited powers that she could challenge anybody?

The PCB chairman should also take notice of how highly-important documents of women team performance were leaked within the PCB and some certain individuals and media group managed to get them even before the PCB high-ups. The PCB chief must find out those black sheep and fire them immediately as they have been destroying smooth functioning of the board.

The sources on condition of anonymity have confirmed to this scribe that Sabih was given threats to keep quite on his sacking or else he had to face the consequences. A coach, who enjoys loads of experience, success and huge respect among players and officials, deserves much better treatment. If the PCB wanted to hire foreign coach, the board should let Sabih work with that coach, as it may help Sabih find out his flaws and play a role of facilitator between players and coach regarding better and fluent communication.

The sources further said that Sabih was sent packing, while all the others, who were actually responsible for the poor results, managed to save their skins. “Why double standards and nepotism are order of the day in the PCB, why neat and clean persons, who really want to work for the uplift of women cricket, are not given chances to prove their mettle. On what grounds Ilyas, Ayesha Ashar and Urooj Mumtaz managed to cling onto their respective positions,” they questioned.

The cricket circles have demanded the PCB chairman to look into this matter and assure justice being done. Sana Mir and her fellows must be taken to task and women cricket must be cleaned from those, who have already damaged it to greater extent.