Decided to step down as the scope of the committee is very limited, claims Iqbal Qasim
Former Pakistani cricketer Iqbal Qasim has resigned from his position as the PCB cricket committee head and claimed that the role only sounded important but the actual decisions are taken by PCB executives themselves. He added that the role did not allow him to add to the betterment of cricket.
The Pakistan cricket committee was formed in October 2018 for the improvement of the state of all aspects of Pakistan cricket. The members were supposed to meet thrice a year to discuss a variety of issues regarding the on-going condition of Pakistan cricket, which seemed to attract criticism from all corners. However, the PCB made drastic changes to the domestic structure in the last two years on its own, without much involvement of the committee.
Iqbal Qasim, who had taken over from Wasim Khan as the head in January and presided over two meetings so far, has submitted his resignation from the post calling it ‘powerless’. He has criticized PCB board members claiming that the role only involved giving recommendations but did not allow them to make any decisions.
"The scope of the committee is very limited and I, despite being a former cricketer, am not able to contribute for the betterment of cricket. If they don't want a collective discussion on domestic cricket affairs then there is no point staying there. I took the role to contribute for the betterment [of cricket in Pakistan], but I cannot recommend a single match referee and even an umpire in the system,” Qasim told ESPNcricinfo.
Soon after their formation of the committee started having disagreements with the PCB and failed to make any major reforms for Pakistan cricket. Qasim, who played 50 Tests and 15 ODIs for Pakistan and has been involved with PCB in various roles, criticized PCB for doing injustice to cricketers and not allowing him to make any sort of recommendations as well.
“It is painful to see the injustice being done to cricketers who have played cricket, fulfill all criteria, but still suffer. They pretend that it's a serious commitment but the scope doesn't allow me to recommend the people who I think are good enough. If that isn't happening, I can't allow them to use my shoulder," he said.