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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will need to conduct a soul-searching of its junior selectors whose poor team selection led to Pakistan's failure to qualify for the semifinals of the Youth World Cup in New Zealand.

The selection committee overlooked three batsmen and deserving players that led to team's inability to cross even 200 runs in the entire tournament, needless to point out that Pakistan lost to lowly placed Nepal and the West Indies.

Against Nepal, Pakistan failed to score 150 odd to lose the match by 26 runs while against the West Indies, they scored a modest 162 and went down by four wickets.

The batsmen, who were ignored for reasons best known to the selectors, included Zeeshan Mohsin, Ariz Kamal and Atif Ali Zaidi. Zeeshan had earned the distinction of scoring century in each innings of the National Junior Cup final while aggregating over 400 runs in the tournament.

Left-handed Ariz Kamal had staked his claim by accumulating 450 odd runs at around 50 in the tournament. He later gave an ample proof of his talent and the selectors poor judgement by slamming a century on his first-class debut.

Atif Ali Zaidi had averaged over 40 runs in the Juniors Cup. Ironically, Zeeshan and Atif were rejected after the first phase of trials while Ariz played in two matches against Sri Lanka Under-19 and scored a 40 in one of the matches in which none of the other openers reached double figures.

The saddest part of the entire scenario is that Zeeshan and Ariz had the temperament and patience to play long innings. But the selectors opted for Gujranwala's Atiq-ur- Rehman who was replaced by Saqib Zia after injuring himself in the nets.

To rub salt to wound, the tour management played Saqib Zia in just one match before replacing him with middle-order batsman Kamran Younis.

Zeeshan and Atif were sidelined on the basis of a practice match between the probables. Both the batsmen had failed to put up a decent score. But the question here arises is if the players are to be picked from practice matches, why the PCB is investing millions of rupees in organizing national championships.

The selection committee is headed by Zaheer Abbas with Sultan Rana, Rashid Khan, Farrukh Zaman and Haroon Rasheed as members. The selectors are hired on a Rs 35,000 monthly salary plus other perks as daily allowance, boarding and lodging as well as travelling facilities.

© Dawn