LAHORE, Jan 23: Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf is looking to spark a new trend in the country’s cricketing system which he hopes will give young players fair chance to prove their mettle once they are selected for the national team.

The trend which the PCB has persisted with in recent years has seen up-and-coming talent being selected and subsequently dropped from the Pakistan team without being given proper chances at international level.

And Zaka is aiming to change that.

“In the past, players have been dropped from the national team without having been given a chance to play and it is a worrying trend,” Zaka told Dawn in an exclusive interview.

“But the PCB is now seriously considering a road map which will ensure that such trend is not repeated and each cricketer is given a proper chance once he has got the selectors’ nod.”

Previous PCB set-ups also made such claims but nothing was done to buck the trend. However, Zaka has a comprehensive strategy in mind and is looking forward to the upcoming series against South Africa to serve as the first step.

“I don’t know what claims were made by my predecessors or what steps they took but now we’re taking this very seriously and we’ve come up with a policy to be followed in the future,” he said.

“As a first step, we’ll try to give proper chances to new comers Haris Sohail and Ehsan Adil in the series against South Africa and I firmly believe that a one-off Test would not give the player an appropriate opportunity to show his worth.

“Our system is such that the selection committee picks the touring squad while the coach and the captain decide on the playing XI but I’ve asked the coach and the captain to give proper chance to the youngsters.”

The system of selection in Pakistan is in stark contrast to the one employed in Australia and other established boards where the selectors decide on the playing XI in consultation with the coach and the captain and Zaka said that they could do so because “they have a good number of players as back-up” and he’s looking forward to doing the same in Pakistan.

“We’re working on several things which will help us improve our bench-strength,” Zaka disclosed.

“It will help us on occasions when a player loses his form and in that case we can send him back to the academy while calling up a player from the reserves.

“However, it is a long-term plan and it will take time for us to counter this problem.”

Meanwhile, Zaka was optimistic about Pakistan’s chances of success in South Africa in the three-Test series.

“We’ve got a good chance despite them being world’s top Test team and we can give them a good fight,” Zaka said.

“We’ve got a good bowling attack which is almost at the same level as theirs but the pitches there tend to be bouncy.

“However, we’re banking on solid performances from our players and are confident of getting good results.”

Zaka downplayed rumours of a possible rift between Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq and the national selection committee over the team selection and said Misbah had not been lent a deaf ear on those matters.

“All the decisions were taken with everyone on board,” he clarified.

“If there are some differences over selection, it doesn’t mean that there is a rift, in fact, healthy discussions are essential in selecting a team.”

He also said that in case the team required a player during the tour, they would be provided with one. “I believe the team and the PCB should go hand in hand over all matters and there should be no pressure on anyone,” he said.

Zaka also gave reasons for not appointing Inzamam-ul-Haq as bating consultant for the tour of South Africa.

“Inzamam was a great player and served Pakistan well throughout his career,” he said. “However, when we hired him for the tour of India, he got himself engaged with a TV channel. When he returned, the PCB committee contacted him but we couldn’t settle the terms and conditions.”

Zaka, however, had a confusing stance on claims made by Inzamam that he wasn’t contacted by the PCB. “In one way the contact was made but in another way, it wasn’t made,” he said.

The PCB chief also moved swiftly to quash rumours that former Pakistan coach Waqar Younis was being appointed as director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in place of Intikhab Alam.

“Although the NCA post is vacant, no final decision has been made,” he said.

Responding to Misbah not being honoured during the PCB’s annual awards this month, Zaka said that Misbah had led the team, which was reeling after the infamous spot-fixing scandal, in superb fashion but he could not be awarded as there was no one competing with him.

“The PCB made a panel to select the best players for 18 categories different for the awards and I believe they have done a good job,” he said.

Zaka concluded saying that the good response received by the PCB for holding the award ceremony for the first time would pave the way for such events in the future.