BCCI should also pay salary to selectors: Asif Iqbal

KOLKATA: The Indian cricket board, the richest in the world, should take a cue from its Pakistani counterpart and make the selectors accountable by giving them monthly salaries, said former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) started paying handsome salaries and perks to all three members of the selection committee since this August. The chairman gets Rs.200,000 and while the other two get Rs.150,000.

"PCB has given them added responsibility and made them accountable by paying them. India should also use this policy," Asif said in an interview here.

"If you also pay the selectors and put them in a proper position of accountability, the responsibility increases. Also, they deserved to be paid. Why should it be a glorified position? Accountability comes these days when you are paid for the responsibilities," said the 64-year-old player, here to watch the India-Pakistan Test on an invite from the Cricket Association of Bengal.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also announced a few months ago that its five selectors would be paid salaries. It later postponed the move till the next domestic season but it is still not certain that it will live up to its word.

On the advent of Twenty20 leagues around the world, Asif, who never played this shortest format of the game, said it was not cricket at all.

"There is nothing wrong in having these (Twenty20) leagues. They are not here to promote cricket, whether it is organisers or television companies or it is players. If they are saying they are promoting cricket, they are lying," said the man who was born in Hyderabad in India and retired in 1980.

"These are purely commercial ventures where everybody wants to make money and have a piece of action," said Asif, who played his last Test here at Eden Gardens.

Asif, however, said it perfectly fine for players to earn money from these leagues.

"The best thing is that the players are gaining, making money. They have short sports careers and if they make some money from it, good luck to them. Why not? It's good and I hope it continues," he said.

Asif said he was not approached either by the BCCI's Indian Premier League or the breakaway Indian Cricket League, which started Friday in Panchkula, near Chandigarh.

"I was not approached, and one of the reasons is that I gave a loud and clear message to those who approached me two-three years ago because of my experience in Sharjah and all that my cricketing life was over," he disclosed.

Asked who approached him, Asif said: "Whatever it was, whether it was like making Sharjah like venture in Abu Dhabi and doing anything like that in Pakistan or even in India as a commentator or doing anything else. I said my chapter is closed. I have had my innings."

On Pakistan's defeat in the first Test in Delhi, Asif said that lack of a permanent opening pair was the visitors' biggest handicap.

"The issue of openers hasn't been solved still. We are still struggling to find a regular opening pair. That's a setback for Pakistan because the middle order gets exposed quickly, like we saw in the first Test in which Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf did not perform and we lost in Delhi," he said.

"They will have to score huge amounts of runs in both innings here, if Pakistan bat in two innings."

Pakistani openers Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed have not provided great starts consistently.

Asif said the team, with new captain Shoaib Malik and several youngsters, would take a few years to start winning.

"The team is new, the captain is new, the coach is new... give them a couple years and then, hopefully, the results will be produced. For Malik, it is a big series as captain. As an all-rounder his value is much in the team," he said.