LAHORE, Jan 28: Just a day after the national captaincy row that saw Younis Khan replacing Shoaib Malik on Tuesday, Pakistan cricket was rocked by yet another controversy when PCB’s Director General and former skipper Javed Miandad announced that he was quitting the high-profile post due to unsatisfactory terms offered to him in the contract by the cricket board.

“The contract was giving me limited powers and it was better not to work, so I decided not to accept it,” Miandad, who had taken up the PCB job about two months ago, said before a crowded press at the Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday.

“My role has been confined to domestic cricket and the duties given to me could be performed by any manager. I don’t believe that for such work, a post of director general is really required,” Miandad, a three-time former Pakistan coach, added. The 124-Test veteran said he had also informed the PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt about his decision of refusal when he was in Dubai on his way to Australia to attend the ICC meeting there. “Ijaz said to me that it [contract rejection] was my own decision,” the 51-year-old Miandad said.

According to the contract, he said, he was head of the domestic cricket operations and the game development.

“No one knows cricket more than me as I have been affiliated with this profession for the last 40 years,” Miandad, who played 233 ODIs for Pakistan between 1975 and 1996, said. “The problem is that what suits me does not suit them [PCB authorities], so I preferred to quit [the post of DG] with grace as it is important for me.”

He dispelled the impression that he was unhappy over the monthly pay of Rs500,000 offered to him by the board.

“That was not the issue as I had been working without any pay or perks for the last two months. The main problem was the limited role [given to me as DG] which is not acceptable,” he clarified.

However, sources told Dawn that Miandad had informed the chairman that he was earning around Rs1.5 million monthly, and in case of joining the PCB he would suffer a loss, if not paid equal to that by the board.

“When I joined the board a circular was given to all the selectors and directors (domestic and international) that they will come under me. But now the contract given to me has no such thing,” he said.

He also said that according to the contract he was the in-charge of domestic cricket operations and the game development, and was responsible to put cricket from youth to the senior level back on winning track, and to coordinate with local authorities in South (region) to develop cricket facilities.

“I was not expecting that because I don’t want to do all that; I want to work to lift the sagging fortunes of our cricket and I wanted to involve myself fully in the affairs of the board which was not mentioned anywhere in the contract offered to me,” he asserted.

Miandad was also not happy with the way Shoaib Malik was replaced as captain by Younis Khan after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the home ODI series last week.

“If Shoaib was removed for the Sri Lanka defeat, that was wrong. He should be left with the same grace by which he came as captain,” he said.

“His removal in the middle of the series is also unfair,” he said.

“Actually, the strategy adopted for the crucial match [in Lahore] was wrong and whoever made that strategy are also responsible for the defeat,” Miandad expressed.

Miandad, besides being named as the director general PCB, was also appointed as Pakistan’s cricket ambassador to China. He is a member of the PCB Governing Board too.

However, he said he would continue to play his role as the cricket ambassador to China and as member of the Governing Board.

The batting legend claimed that he had finalised a system to develop Pakistan in a short time period of two months on solid lines and hoped that it would help produce talented cricketers for future.

Miandad also said he was against chief selector Abdul Qadir’s idea of holding trials matches to pick the national team for the series against Sri Lanka.

“I was of the view that when Quaid-i-Azam Trophy is in progress there is no need to disturb it by holding trials matches,” he said.