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First Class Captain
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- Jan 19, 2009
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Tuesday, April 27, 2010
By Khalid Hussain
KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Aamir Sohail on Monday took another swipe at Ijaz Butt when he offered to buy biomechanics machinery which was rejected as ‘useless’ by the country’s cricket chief at a meeting of a sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee in Islamabad.
“If the PCB thinks it is useless then I am willing to buy the equipment. I will use it myself for the betterment of our players,” the former Test opener told ‘The News’. Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, told the sub-committee at the Parliament House on Monday that he believes that the equipment bought by the Board for almost 45 million rupees to set up a biomechanics lab in 2008 was completely useless.
Aamir, who resigned as PCB’s Director Game Development after falling out with Butt, said that during his tenure he had helped put a biomechanics lab ‘up and running’ at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.
“Mr Butt is misleading our people by saying that the machinery is useless and that there is nobody in Pakistan who is capable of running it,” he said. “We found a qualified operator last year who worked with the PCB for three months. Unfortunately he was sacked by the Board without being paid a single penny for his services.”
Aamir said that Bashir Tahir made the lab operational and worked with several players. “We assessed a lot of players. It was a great induction,” he stressed. Aamir said that Tahir was sacked by Butt on the advice of Intikhab Alam. “I don’t know why they did it but it was a poor decision. Biomechanics is a key area in cricket development these days and cannot be ignored.”
Almost a year ago, Butt had expressed completely different views about the biomechanics lab, which he rejected as a waste of money on Monday in front of the PAC sub-committee. At a time when a section of the press was criticising the PCB for wasting money on the expensive equipment, the Board issued a press release on Butt’s behalf on April 28 last year which said: “The NCA Biomechanics Laboratory is a landmark project in the history of Pakistan cricket. It is concerned with the enhancement of understanding and performance in athletic events through modelling, simulation and measurement. The laboratory is engaged, initially in the areas of Research and Development and Computational Support for Biomechanics and Injury Mitigation System (BIMS) in the study of the mechanics of various cricketing activities like, bowling, batting, catching and throwing. The research is patterned with both the motion of athletes and the motion of sports implements. The emphasis is on developing mathematical and computational models for events which allow increased understanding, performance evaluation and optimisation in Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention as well as Rehabilitation Process and Programmes.”
The statement concluded: “Chairman PCB Mr Ijaz Butt took a special initiative to ensure that the equipment was put into practice and from last several weeks it is fully operational. Anyone, who doubts that the software and equipment is lying redundant, is welcome to have a look.”
Aamir, who was aware of the PCB statement, said that Butt’s U-turn on the issue is another proof that either he has gone senile and forgets his own policies or is simply incapable of running Pakistan cricket in a professional manner.
“I’m surprised as to how anybody can change his statement like this. One day you are calling it your landmark project and then you are rejecting it as completely useless. It’s unbelievable.”
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=236226
By Khalid Hussain
KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Aamir Sohail on Monday took another swipe at Ijaz Butt when he offered to buy biomechanics machinery which was rejected as ‘useless’ by the country’s cricket chief at a meeting of a sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee in Islamabad.
“If the PCB thinks it is useless then I am willing to buy the equipment. I will use it myself for the betterment of our players,” the former Test opener told ‘The News’. Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, told the sub-committee at the Parliament House on Monday that he believes that the equipment bought by the Board for almost 45 million rupees to set up a biomechanics lab in 2008 was completely useless.
Aamir, who resigned as PCB’s Director Game Development after falling out with Butt, said that during his tenure he had helped put a biomechanics lab ‘up and running’ at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.
“Mr Butt is misleading our people by saying that the machinery is useless and that there is nobody in Pakistan who is capable of running it,” he said. “We found a qualified operator last year who worked with the PCB for three months. Unfortunately he was sacked by the Board without being paid a single penny for his services.”
Aamir said that Bashir Tahir made the lab operational and worked with several players. “We assessed a lot of players. It was a great induction,” he stressed. Aamir said that Tahir was sacked by Butt on the advice of Intikhab Alam. “I don’t know why they did it but it was a poor decision. Biomechanics is a key area in cricket development these days and cannot be ignored.”
Almost a year ago, Butt had expressed completely different views about the biomechanics lab, which he rejected as a waste of money on Monday in front of the PAC sub-committee. At a time when a section of the press was criticising the PCB for wasting money on the expensive equipment, the Board issued a press release on Butt’s behalf on April 28 last year which said: “The NCA Biomechanics Laboratory is a landmark project in the history of Pakistan cricket. It is concerned with the enhancement of understanding and performance in athletic events through modelling, simulation and measurement. The laboratory is engaged, initially in the areas of Research and Development and Computational Support for Biomechanics and Injury Mitigation System (BIMS) in the study of the mechanics of various cricketing activities like, bowling, batting, catching and throwing. The research is patterned with both the motion of athletes and the motion of sports implements. The emphasis is on developing mathematical and computational models for events which allow increased understanding, performance evaluation and optimisation in Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention as well as Rehabilitation Process and Programmes.”
The statement concluded: “Chairman PCB Mr Ijaz Butt took a special initiative to ensure that the equipment was put into practice and from last several weeks it is fully operational. Anyone, who doubts that the software and equipment is lying redundant, is welcome to have a look.”
Aamir, who was aware of the PCB statement, said that Butt’s U-turn on the issue is another proof that either he has gone senile and forgets his own policies or is simply incapable of running Pakistan cricket in a professional manner.
“I’m surprised as to how anybody can change his statement like this. One day you are calling it your landmark project and then you are rejecting it as completely useless. It’s unbelievable.”
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=236226
