Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) former chairman Ramiz Raja has described the appointment of Mickey Arthur to the post of national team director as “a clown in a village circus”.
In his first reaction to Arthur’s comeback to the national team, Ramiz questioned the former head coach’s loyalty to Pakistan cricket.
“A first-of-its-kind coach/director of cricket picked to run Pakistan cricket remotely, whose loyalty is first with his county job than Pakistan cricket. This is as crazy as a clown in a village circus,” Ramiz said.
He also lashed out at the PCB chairman Najam Sethi and his cricket management committee.
“A PCB chairman who doesn’t understand cricket, probably was not even good enough to make it to the XI in a club game, heads a cabal of political, petty minded club runners for a management committee to run Pakistan cricket affairs, who are on a Rs 12 lakh a month salary,” Ramiz said.
A senior official of the board, however, dismissed Ramiz’s claim of the cricket management committee members getting handsome monthly salaries.
“It is totally incorrect and as per service rules, management committee members get a meeting allowance and daily allowance and PCB provides accommodation for outstation members.” Ramiz, who was replaced as PCB chairman by Sethi by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif last December, has been quiet for a while, after initially lashing out at the changes in the board.
Sethi has said that since Ramiz is taking a monthly pension from the PCB he can’t, under the board’s code of conduct, criticize its policies or officials.
A reliable source said that the cricket management committee which was initially appointed for four months has been given an extension by the patron in chief until the new governing body is formed under the old constitution of 2014.
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