April 04, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 3: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator and a member of the Senate Committee for Sports Enver Baig on Tuesday said Dr Nasim Ashraf was not the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and only the head of the adhoc committee in the absence of the board's constitution.

Enver held Dr Nasim solely responsible for the ongoing cricket crisis claiming that he had been running the affairs of the board for the last over three years.

“Dr Nasim was in fact the defacto chairman of the board during the tenure of Shaharyar Khan due to his close relations with the patron, Gen Pervez Musharraf.”

Enver termed Dr Ashraf a "weak administrator" and a "disaster" for Pakistani cricket. He alleged that Dr Ashraf was responsible for the Oval Test fiasco, Younis Khan's captaincy issue, Shaharyar Khan's resignation as PCB chief, ouster of fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif as a result of dope test and now the humiliating World Cup defeat.

He alleged that Shoaib and Asif were dropped from the team for the world cup not because of fitness problems, but for the fear of a possible positive dope test.

Enver also criticized the PCB for appointing Mushtaq Ahmed as assistant coach of the team. “Justice Qayyum in his report had clearly stated that Mushtaq Ahmed could not be assigned any task in the PCB due to his alleged links with the match-fixers and bookies, but he was still hired.”

Enver threatened to observe token hunger strike outside the Parliament House and mobilize cricket associations if Dr Nasim failed to prepare the board's constitution by May 1.