ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Peerzada Tuesday blamed successive governments for falling standard of sports including cricket as, according to him, they failed to provide opportunities to youth to polish their skills.

`It is the government which provides sportsmen opportunities to improve their skills. But past governments failed to build sports infrastructure to the benefit of the youngsters,` said Riaz Hussain Peerzada, responding to senators` criticism of poor performance of Pakistan cricket team in various competitions especially its pitiable defeat in the T-20 international cricket matches held in India in March.

PML-N senator, Mohammad Javed Abbasi, had moved an adjournment motion regarding mismanagement in the Pakistan Cricket Board`s affairs, besides criticising players, coaches and officials of the PCB and the selection board for poor show in the T-20 World Cup.`Cricket used to make Pakistanis proud. Now we only hear news of scandals of Pakistani cricketers, their visit to night clubs and involvement in match fixing and repeated failures in every cricketing competition,` said Javed Abbasi.

The Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) senator, Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar, believed that defeat in cricket was the fate of this country as long as merit was compromised.

`More than 50pc of the cricketers are selected on basis of favouritism,` said Usman Kakar who demanded that the present government should also invest in sports infrastructure to encourage sporting activities in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KP) and Fata.

Lamenting deteriorating status of sport, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Hafiz Hamdullah, asked the federal minister to clear who was the chairman of the PCB, Sheheryar Khan or Najam Sethi.

`We know that Sheheryar Khan is the PCB chairman. But in fact Najam Sethi calls the shots,` said Hafiz Hamdullah, who alleged that lack of coordinationand distrust among top officials and different departments of the PCB were also one of the reasons for decline in cricl(et.

The minister for IPC, Riaz Hafiz Peerzada, agreed with the senators that deterioration in the system had caused the decline in quality of cricket.

Riaz Peerzada, who is also president, Pakistan Sports Board, said: `No measures in the past have been taken to develop the sports, whether it is hockey, wrestling or kabadi on technical and scientific grounds.

Defending cricketers involved in scandals, Riaz Hussain said young men made mistakes.

Senators also opposed induction of right hand opening batsman, Khurram Manzoor in the Pakistani cricket team especially when the coach and captain were against it.

Riaz Hussain Peerzada, however, argued that Khurram Manzoor had hit few centuries. `We thought he was a big player. But his performance was unsatisfactory,` he said.

He also defended PCB Chairman Sheheryar Khan and Executive Board Chairman Najam Sethi.