The turmoil in Pakistan cricket, which has severely affected the game in the troubled country for the past several years, took a fresh turn on Friday with England inflicting a humiliating defeat by a margin of an innings and 47 runs in the first Test at Multan.
Hours after that debacle, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) decided to reconstruct the selection committee.
According to a statement by the PCB, Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali have been named in the new look selection committee for the senior men’s national team.
This development comes just 10 days after former star batter Mohammad Yousuf stepped down from his position his position in the selection panel. The newly introduced trio will join Asad Shafiq and Hasan Cheema in the selection committee and will have their task cut out as Pakistan cricket is at its lowest ebb in all formats of the game.
However, the PCB statement failed to mention whether Pakistan head coaches Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie, who guide the limited overs and Test teams respectively, will continue to serve on the selection committee as voting members, or who would be the chief selector of the revamped panel.
Dar recently announced that the ongoing season would be the last time he would do umpiring and it marks the first instance of Pakistan having an acclaimed umpire in their selection committee.
The revamped senior men’s selection committee’s first task would be to pick Pakistan squad for the remaining two Tests against England, with the second one starting on October 15 – after the crushing defeat in the first Test at Multan saw them become the first team in the history of Test cricket to lose a game by an innings after scoring over 500 runs in their first innings.
They also have to select Pakistan’s white-ball squads for future series in Australia and South Africa.
Following the sixth straight defeat in their home conditions at Multan under Shan Masood’s leadership, Pakistan have now slipped to the bottom of the World Test Championship points table with only 16 points from eight games with a points percentage of 16.67.