The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced a new, three-man professional selection committee to be headed by Salahuddin Mulla Ahmed, a veteran selector. The other members of the committee are Shafqat Rana, also a previous member, and former Test left-arm fast bowler Saleem Jaffar.

Ahmed has been on the selection committee no less than 13 times before this latest tenure, on various occasions between 1979 and 1999 and has also headed the committee before. Rana has been on three previous committees in 1983-84, 1984-85 and 1994-95.

Jaffar, who is currently coach of the Sind team in the Pentangular Cup 2007, told Cricinfo that having seen the players from Sind region, he has a fair idea of how much talent lies in the province.

"It is a huge responsibility and requires an awful lot of sincerity and devotion. I've seen whole domestic season this year and have been involved with the players directly. And with that experience, I will try and bring out the talent I have witnessed over the past few months," he said.

Additionally, a new selection policy has also been finalised by the board. For any home series, the selection committee will choose the final playing XI after consultation with the captain. For away tours, the committee will select the squad after consultation with the captain, while the final playing XI will be decided by a tour selection committee which includes the manager, coach, captain and vice-captain.

The decision to enhance the influence of selectors in practice is thought to be the result of the experiences of the last selection committee, headed by Wasim Bari, which resigned after the World Cup. Bari and his team were widely perceived to have little or no influence with captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and as their relationship worsened, the captain's hold over selectorial matters was said to be total.

The board experimented with the idea of sending a selector on tour with the team to have a greater say in team matters but that idea appears to have been dropped under the new policy.

The committee will be responsible for selecting the national team as well as the 'A' teams. A separate panel to look after junior teams is expected to be announced within the next few days as well.

A new captain for both Test and ODI sides is also set to be announced this week, while Pakistan are also looking at hiring a new coach.

cricinfo