New chief selector Abdul Qadir aims at "sweeping changes"

KARACHI: Pakistan cricket chief Ijaz Butt on Thursday named Abdul Qadir as the new chief selector, bringing the legendary Test leg-spinner in place of Saleem Jaffer, who was heading the national selection committee on an interim basis.

"Qadir will be our new chief selector," the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt told reporters. Butt said that the Board will name the other members of the selection committee soon.

It is expected that Jaffer, a former Pakistan Test pacer, will be retained on the selection committee while former Test opener Shoaib Mohammad would be brought in as a new member.

The post of chief selector fell vacant when Salahuddin Ahmed resigned ahead of last month"s four-nation twenty20 event in Toronto to protest over a change made in the Pakistan team after the selection committee had submitted it to the PCB.

Qadir, 53, sounded pleased to be chosen for the job and said that he is planning to bring sweeping changes in the system with which national teams are selected in the country.

"It"s an honour for me to be selected for this important job," Qadir told "The News" in an interview. "I see it as a challenge and want to introduce a "justice-based" selection policy that gives a fair chance to each and every first-class cricketer, with a good enough showing in domestic events," he stressed.

Qadir, who played 67 Tests, taking 236 wickets and 132 scalps from 104 One-day Internationals, said that once he takes over as chief selector he would bring a world of a change in the selection procedure.

"I"ve never liked the way (national) teams were selected in the past," he said. "There were always question marks on some selections. But I will have an open policy. We will select a total of 44 players from first-class and junior cricket and hold trial matches before selecting the team," he said.

Qadir made it clear that he doesn"t like holding camps and said that the idea is to select 18 batsmen including three or four wicket-keepers, nine fast bowlers, nine spinners from first-class cricket on the basis of their performances.

Eight players from the Under-19 event will also be picked and then the pool of players will compete in a series of trial matches. "That way we will also be able to prepare a solid second string," he said.

Qadir"s first task would be to select a strong squad for the home series against India scheduled to get underway early next year. "We will try our best to form a strong squad from the available material," he said.

Speaking on controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, Qadir said that he believes the pacer is an asset for Pakistan cricket. "Shoaib is a match-winning bowler and can play for Pakistan as long as he keeps himself fit," he said.

While Qadir is looking forward to the assignment, there was some confusion over his appointment.

While Butt named him as the new chief selector, the Board"s chief operating officer Saleem Altaf later said that nothing was "official" yet.

"He (Butt) had said that he will most likely be appointing Qadir as the chief selector but there is nothing official," Altaf told reporters.

Though not unexpected, Qadir"s appointment is set to create some controversy because of the various candid interviews he has given on television about a few current players.

He even commented that left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir is successful mainly because he gets a "tampered" ball.