Contracts formally suspended

The Pakistan Cricket Board formally suspended all players’ contracts on Saturday following the country’s shocking exit from the World Cup and will replace them with performance-based arrangements, its chairman said. “All players’ contracts stand suspended,” PCB chairman Naseem Ashraf told a news conference in Lahore. Ashraf said no one should think they can play for Pakistan without delivering performance. The board will “introduce performance-based contracts very soon,” he said. Pakistan’s next international assignment is the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September, and Ashraf said the cricket board has enough time to regroup after the debacle in the West Indies. The cricket board has formed a three-member Performance Evaluation Committee to look into the causes of the defeats in the West Indies, he said. The committee — former Test players Ejaz Ahmed, Salahuddin Ahmed and Salim Altaf — will submit its report within the next 30 days.Pakistan are planning to hire a baseball coach from the United States to improve the national team’s fielding. “The coach will be not be for three months or four months, we will hire him for at least one year,” Ashraf said. He added that Pakistan would now look for a Pakistani coach. “It will take some time to find a suitable man,” Ashraf said. He said the cricket board will not immediately replace Inzamam-ul Haq.