Aleem Dar, a senior selection committee member, reportedly submitted his resignation to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) following the national team’s dismal performance in the T20 World Cup.
“Former ICC Elite Panel umpire Dar has sent his resignation, which is yet to be accepted,” PTI quoted a well-informed source close to the PCB as saying on Tuesday.
The selection committee consists of Dar and former Test cricketers Asad Shafiq and Aaqib Javed.
According to a person close to Dar, he quit because he felt that Mike Hesson, the team’s head coach, had too much power when it came to making selections.
“Aleem is very upset that when the World Cup squad was being selected, he had resisted the inclusion of Babar Azam and Shadab Khan in the squad without any performance, but Hesson insisted on having them,” the source said.
Dar was taken aback, he continued, by the fact that neither captain Salman Agha nor the other selectors questioned Hesson’s authority.
“Aleem had also insisted that when Babar and Shadab could be called in without performance, Muhammad Rizwan should be included in place of Usman Khan because of his experience, but no one supported him.”
Pakistan’s Super Eight match against New Zealand was canceled, and they fell against powerful teams including bitter rivals India and England, failing to advance to the semifinals.
Despite defeating Sri Lanka in their last Super Eight match, they were unable to advance to the semifinals.
Sources claim that the players’ performance has angered powerful government officials as well as the PCB.
