December 2, 2003	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1424

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KARACHI, Dec 1: Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas said on Monday that cricket should be run by professional people to avoid a repeat of the conflicts that ultimately led to Lt Gen Tauqir Zia’s resignation.

“I have always been saying that professional people, such as former players, are best suited to look after cricket,” Zaheer told Dawn. “At the same time I am sorry to learn that the PCB chairman has decided to quit.”

When asked the reasons behind the resignation, 56-year-old batting great said: “Look at the events in the last several months. Pakistan cricket was going nowhere with frequent war of words among the PCB officials. Discipline had reached its nadir. One should always remember that cricket basically teaches us discipline. But sadly things had started to head in the wrong direction under Tauqir Zia.”

Zaheer, popularly known as the Asian Bradman for his batting deeds in the 1970s and 80s, himself resigned from an ICC committee recently after the cricket board objected to some of his remarks against PCB’s policies.

“Yeah, I quit as a matter of principle because I disagreed to the way things were being handled by the PCB. My intention was clear since I wanted to see Pakistan become a top nation.

“Unfortunately, some people took unkindly to my weekly write-ups in this paper which only raised objections against the endless experiments at selection level. How can you guarantee consistently good performance when something like 40 players were tried by the PCB.”

Rashid Latif, who until the Bangladesh series was in PCB chairman’s good books, stated that he had nothing personal against the retired general.

“Whatever differences we had was purely on cricketing terms. Otherwise, I always have great regard for the outgoing PCB chief,” Rashid, who resigned as national skipper in late September, said.

Rashid praised the contribution of Tauqir for reviving his career eight months ago.

“I shall always remain grateful to the chairman for asking me to take over as captain after the World Cup mess. He supported and stood by me on more than one occasion. But we could not get much far because of circumstances beyond our control.

“I wish general sahib the best of luck for the future,” he concluded.