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President Gen Pervez Musharraf, immediately after taking over the reins of the government, had publicly vowed to pursue a policy of transparency, accountability and good governance in every walk of life to elevate the country's image.

He was the first general to declare all his assets at the time of taking the leadership of the country. His intentions were clear from day one. He has lived to his commitment till this day. However he has not been able to achieve all that he had promised on day one not because his priorities have changed but simply because some of his trusted men have not been able to come upto the expectations of their leader.

The president who in principle believes in devolution of power had to put faith in his trusted colleagues. It does not imply that his men are involved in corruption or dishonesty. It is simply because they think themselves above board and do not go through the set drills in running the organisation which is against good governance and they think that they are not accountable.

The president because of the past legacy by virtue of his office became the Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Since Lt Gen Tauqir Zia was made head of the PCB the president actually did not interfere in the cricket affairs and in fact cricket could not be his priority as the whole structure of the country was in shambles and on the verge of collapse. And to add to Gen Musharraf's problem was the World Trade Centre scenario which totally diverted his attention. He had little time to focus on internal issues. Cricket was just a petty affair if it is seen in the overall national context.

Under the circumstances one least expected from the president to keep a careful watch on cricket affairs. As the president hardly had any time to attend to cricket affairs the PCB took full advantage of the situation and started behaving in a strange manner keeping transparency, accountability and good governance aside.

The PCB started behaving as a state within a state. Now it is well over two years when the present set up came into power. To this day it has failed to get the board accounts audited by an independent auditor.

The PCB is the richest sports organisation in the country and a lot of money is coming through advertising, ICC share, some funds was released by their Indian counterparts which they had withheld from the 1987 World Cup jointly organised by Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.

There is no doubt that because of terrorism Pakistan cricket has definitely suffered financial losses but whether it is in loss or profit, it should be put in black and white and according to the PCB constitution the accounts should be audited annually to keep the finances transparent.

It has been gathered from reliable sources that the CBFS organisers of the Sharjah tournaments have not paid the PCB the appearance money for the last two events. If the money has been received the financial transaction is not known. One hopes that the rumour is not correct and if the PCB has received the appearance money it should be properly entered in the accounts books.

The PCB, it is reported while supporting Tangier to be declared an international cricket centre did not care to take the advice of the foreign office as it may create problems for the government in future if the new venue creates some problem to the Government of Morocco. No sports body has the authority of dealing on behalf of Pakistan at any international forum.

The PCB made a lot of hue and cry and started negotiations with the world's leading sports channels. It was stated time and again by the PCB chairman and its director Brig Muhammad Rana that bids for the next 5-year term will be opened in Sharjah on June 4 and the highest bidder will be awarded the contract when TWI's term expires.

One failed to understand why at all the bid was to be opened in Sharjah when TEN Sports owned by Mr Abdul Rehman Bukhatir the pioneer of desert cricket and vice-president of the CBFS was himself a competitor.

If everything was transparent it should have been held in Pakistan. If the event managers were not willing to come over to Pakistan because of security reasons they should have been dropped. By acceding to event managers demand, the PCB in fact accepted that Pakistan was a high risk country. If event managers who are paid to conduct an event refuse to come to Pakistan how the PCB can think of cricket teams coming to Pakistan for a series. It was a policy matter which was definitely not in the jurisdiction of the PCB.

With all the statements and irregularities in policy matters the bid which was to be opened on June 4, 2002 at Sharjah has not been made public. It gives reasons of doubt about its transparency.

The PCB which was being run in the past with hardly a dozen people besides groundsmen at different Test centres now has an army of employees with fat salaries and the blue eyed boys are hand picked.

The only additional work that the present setup took was construction of infrastructure at many centres which deserves commendation as no previous board had cared to provide even the basics for the promotion of the game. If the board hired some men to look after the development of infrastructure the money was well spent. But the same cannot be said about the hiring of the unwanted paraphernalia which has now become a burden on the board and has already started pinching it.

It is strange that the PCB boss, condemned one of its employees who was dealing with publicity of the board, at a Press Conference but when it decided to launch the austerity campaign dismissed only one employee of the board, who was posted in Karachi which is the biggest sports and economic centre of the country. If someone is condemned by the head of the institution he should have been the first to go. But the wire pulling and transparency claimed by the present setup failed to shake the morale of the self proclaimed champions of good governance, transparency and accountability.

The PCB showed favouritism and succumbed to recommendation instead of merit when out of the blue it recommended the name of Wasim Raja, former Test cricketer on the panel of international referees with no previous experience.

This is supposed to be one of the most prestigious appointments made by any country's board. Waseem Raja has never been a good disciplinarian. In his cricketing days he was the one who was fined by the then Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP) for misbehaving in a hotel and the board had to pay the damages.

Pakistan had some highly respected match referees like Javed Burki, a retired bureaucrat, Zaheer Abbas, Intikhab Alam, Col Naushad Ali who earned good reputation and Talat Ali. All such deals speak of transparency, good governance and accountability of the board. It would be better if the board is run on proper lines and save the president from any undue embarrassment.

© Dawn