ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had taken a great initiative by conducting the Skill Consultant Programme for the youngsters ageing between 17 to 25 years under the command of former legends Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Qadir and Ijaz Ahmed as all was going well and the board was getting a lot of appreciation for this timely step.
But the things suddenly started to turn sour as a powerful lobby in the PCB didn’t want to let Chairman Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf work freely for the betterment of cricket in the country. The lobby using their same old tactics to sabotage the entire event, an inside source confirmed to this correspondent on condition of anonymity. He said that all was not well as Sarfraz, Qadir and Ijaz were first assigned for the World Cup 2015 to get fresh talent turn into master class and all these three had done so far a tremendous job by visiting Islamabad, Peshawar, Mirpur, Karachi and Rawalpindi and to their great credit not a single complaint was heard regarding any wrongdoing during the trials process and every thing was done transparently and on merit.  Now the PCB had a change of heart as they wanted to finish the job in three-month time instead of a proper time which was decided earlier. First the schedule which was given to these three legends is very tight and they had to travel to 16 cities to select the talented players, four provinces and the Federal Capital, considered as fifth one. One week each would be spent in all these cities, two weeks would be spent at National Cricket Academy, how they would be able to complete the task within the given time amid tight schedule.
The source further said that Qadir is a legendry cricketer and his contract is being expired and instead of recognising his services, the PCB is not willing to regularize his services. On the other hand, the NCA coaches are sitting in air-conditioned rooms and had no role in finding or grooming the talent while all the hard work is being done by Sarfraz, Qadir and Ijaz.
The PCB actually hired the services of Javed Miandad for batsmen and Wasim Bari for wicketkeepers but both these gentlemen never bother to turn up for the assignment and the board handed Ijaz and Qadir extra responsibility of finding the wicketkeepers too.
PCB Chairman Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf must be aware of the insiders who had only one mission in mind to sabotage all the good work and not let anything happen that is good for the country in general and for players in particular.
Sarfraz, Qadir and Ijaz must be given due course of time to get desired results, no one could expect wonders from any top class coach or any other individual in over night time. The skill consultant programme is a step in the right direction, let them work freely and give them proper time, so that they may produce the next crop of players.