Reason for Pak's poor performance: 'Absence of educated players in team'

The Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shaharyar Khan says absence of educated players in the national team was one of the reasons for its recent poor performance.

Talking to the media in Quetta, Khan said that presently only Misbah-ul-Haq was a proper graduate in the team.

"There is no graduate player in the team right now except for Misbah and the absence of educated players in the team is a primary reason for its recent downfall," he said.

"In future we will do our best to induct and encourage educated players into the team and also groom the existing lot of talent," he said.

The PCB chief also admitted that the Board had decided to make no compromises now on disciplinary issues.

"Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal have not been selected because of disciplinary issues and we want to make it clear in future we are not going to compromise on discipline or fitness," he said.

"That is why we have had fresh fitness tests and now the boot camp under supervision of military trainers in Kakul before the team leaves for England," he said.

The PCB chief also admitted that Pakistan need to pay more attention to its under-19 cricket and recently there were debatable selections in the squad for the World Youth Cup in Bangladesh.

"It has come to our notice that some deserving players were left out to bring in less deserving ones and we are going to take strict action against those responsible for this. In future selection will be strictly merit and performance based."

He said this was one reason why the PCB was bringing in former Test player Mudassar Nazar into the National cricket Academy in Lahore.

"There is no more qualified coach than Mudassar to supervise our grassroot cricket and he has made a big sacrifice by agreeing to resign from a lucrative coaching assignment in the International Cricket Council in Dubai and join us."

Khan also spoke about inviting the Afghanistan team to Quetta, the capital city of Baluchistan province.

"The security situation has improved in Baluchistan and Quetta and we are planning to set up a full fledged regional cricket academy in Quetta to tap the raw cricket talent in the province," he stated.