Miandad wants change in the PCB

	Miandad wants Pervez Musharraf to step in and hire technocrats © AFP

Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan captain and coach, has joined a growing number of board critics, urging his county's president, Pervez Musharraf, to take strong action against the PCB.

Miandad held the board responsible for all the controversies to have dogged Pakistan cricket in recent times, including the latest Mohammad Asif drugs scandal, and wants Musharraf, also the Patron-in-Chief of the PCB, to hire technocrats.

"I was in the US in the last few days. And I can't tell you what feelings the Pakistanis there have about the cricketing affairs of the country," Miandad told Dawn. "Every day there is a new controversy in the board and it is due to the non-technocrat persons handling the affairs of the country's most important game; it is the right time for the president (Musharraf), to remove the entire board immediately and bring technocrats.

"The game of cricket is also a source for creating national unity but unfortunately the defeats and back-to-back controversies are causing great disappointment among Pakistan cricket fans, which is not good."

Asif, the fast bowler, has been officially suspended by the PCB for testing positive for a banned substance during random drug tests conducted during the Indian Premier League. This is his second drug offence after both he and Shoaib Akhtar failed a dope test before the Champions Trophy in 2006.

Miandad added that the board was too lenient on the pair initially after their bans were overturned by an appellate tribunal appointed by board. He implied the latest scandal, plus Shoaib's repeated acts of indiscipline, wouldn't have occurred had the board acted otherwise.

"Both Shoaib and Asif had been rightly banned for two and one year (respectively) for positive dope tests in 2006," he said. "But the same PCB monarchy influenced to get both of them free by its own appellate tribunal with the desire that they (bowlers) will help them win the 2007 World Cup. But all these efforts produced nothing positive; instead they encouraged the players and both remained active in more indiscipline cases after that."

Miandad is among a growing number of former Pakistan players to slam the board for its mishandling of the Shoaib-Asif scandal, including Imran Khan, Majid Khan, Ramiz Raja, Zaheer Abbas and Aamer Sohail.