Pakistan to push for six-day Tests

The ad-hoc committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) met on Monday at Karachi's National Stadium for half an hour. Although the meeting ended without any major decisions being taken, the prospect of six-day Tests were discussed, along with an experiment with orange balls.

Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman while briefing the media, said only three decisions had been approved by the committee and the rest had been deferred to February 12 when it would meet again in Lahore. Asked what those decisions were, he said they were the review of the existing selection committee, appointment of an assistant coach and manager of the senior team and coaches at the National Cricket Academy.

Asked specifically if the selection committee headed by Wasim Bari was going to be replaced by a full-time paid one, Shaharyar said the committee would review the performance of the selectors and then decide whether to continue with them, replace them with paid or honorary selectors.

He said these decisions had been differed due to the absence of one member, Naeem Ashraf, who was abroad. But insiders said the other members were also very keen to wrap up the meeting and go and watch the Test although the agenda for the meeting included the appointment of assistant coach and review of the selection committee.

However, talking about the decisions approved by the members, Shaharyar said the PCB would soon be submitting a paper with the ICC asking it to allow Pakistan to hold six-day Tests in the winter season. "In the last home series against England we lost a lot of time and overs due to bad light and weather and we want to ICC to at least allow us to hold six-day Tests between November 15 and January 15 every year that is if we've no other option but to hosts Tests in this period," he said.

The West Indies are due to tour Pakistan this year and are scheduled to play their matches in November and December. "We want to ensure that we've Test matches with full quota of 450 overs bowled," Shaharyar emphasised. He said Pakistan would also start experimenting with orange coloured cricket balls in domestic cricket from February 1 to see if they can replace the traditional red and white balls in day or night matches in case of poor light. "The idea is if players can't sight the red or white balls under lights properly in Tests then why can't the ICC experiment with orange-coloured balls."

"We are going to experiment with them ourselves in day and under lights and report back to the ICC," he added. Shaharyar also said Pakistan would ask the ICC through a proper paper to review its policy on playing Tests under lights. "From the experience we've had even when the lights have been switched on in Tests play has been stopped by the umpires for bad light as the lighting has not been good enough," he said. "We are going to ask the ICC to increase the international requirements of lighting power for Test matches."

He disclosed former Test pacer Sarfraz Nawaz had been asked to continue working with banned fast bowler Shabbir Ahmed to further correct his action so that the PCB can file another appeal with the ICC for a review. Shabbir was banned by the ICC for 12 months for having an illegal bowling action last December and his appeal was also turned down earlier this year by the ICC's Bowling Action Review Group. Shaharyar said if the PCB found more improvement in Shabbir's action it would go for another appeal.