Ladies and gentleman, please brace your self to get familiar with the names, identities, idiosyncrasies, weird theologies and even weired preferences of a brand new, and this time, fully paid, selection committee. The much awaited announcement of who would comprise and lead the new selection panel following the resignation of Bari and co. after the World Cup was made a few hours ago by the PCB.

Salahuddin Mulla Ahmed (more famously Sallu Bhai) who is a veteran selector that has previously been on the committee no less then 13 times both as a member and as the chairman, will lead the three member panel again. The other members of the committee are Shafqat Rana, who is also a previous member on three occasions, and the former Test left-arm fast bowler Saleem Jaffar, who is the only debutant in the panel. Jaffar is currently the coach of the Sindh team in the Pentangular Cup 2007, and he's told Cricinfo he'll try to put his local knowledge of domestic cricket into use. What's more interesting to me then the actual committee however, is this so-called "new" selection policy. I quote from Cricinfo:

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.

That indeed is interesting. This means that for a home series, if the captain and selection committee differ over the final playing XI, the selection committee will have the final say. Make what you will of this, but I for one, have always felt that once a squad of 15 has been selected, it should be the prerogative of the captain primarily, and then coach secondarily, to chose a playing XI.

I know you will point towards the allegations that Inzi had misused his powers in this capacity (Wasim Akram reportedly referring to him as a 'dictator') but I see little point in giving the captain, some one who has the job of handling all of the team's resources once it is out in the field of play, a team that he is not happy with.

Who is to say he might not marginalise the resources he was not happy with but still given? Who would suffer as a whole then? The team, of course. Of course this doesn't mean you give a free reign to the captain to do whatever he wants; the key in the power distribution over this issue is a good working relationship and accurate communication to and fro between the selectors and team think-tank, but selecting the final XI, for some reason, some how, I've always felt, should be the exclusive domain of the skipper.

As for the members of this panel, though you cannot deny the cricketing know-how of some one like Salahuddin, who has been around for ages, but I'd personally have liked it more to see some fresh names and new faces we haven't seen before. I'm willing to give these guys the benefit of the doubt as they start another stint though, but the jury certainly remains out on them for the meanwhile. All the Fawad Alams, Zulqarnain Haiders, Salman Butts, Mansoor Amjads, Abdur Rehmans out there - get ready all the same. Show time, I suppose, might be nearing.