September 12, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 11, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 11: Celebrated former Test googly bowler Abdul Qadir, while demanding a technocrat be appointed at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), asked for accountability of the outgoing Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf and Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi as well as other PCB officials.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Qadir said only a former Test cricketer should run affairs of the cricket board since non-technocrats had done great damage to the national institution in the last nine years.

“The Patron should appoint a honest former Test cricketer as new chairman of the PCB who should also have the experience of administration,” the veteran of 67 Tests and 104 One-day Internationals opined.

He said non-technocrats who were at the helm of the affairs for the last nine years had no skills of administration and they also failed to handle the disciplinary issues relating to players such as fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar.

He argued that a former player was likely to know the game inside out — from the grass root level to the top — and could run the board in a better manner.

Qadir, who claimed 236 wickets in Test cricket and 132 in the ODIs during his career, alleged that the non-technocrat had intentions of only bungling the PCB finances and leave.

“Signing a few letters while sitting in plush offices at the Gaddafi Stadium is not what administration really is,” he said. “The real job is to handle the players and to produce a number of international-level cricketers,” asserted Qadir.

“In fact there is a complete mess of the PCB affairs because of their unwise decisions,” he said. “They even failed to handle Shoaib Akhtar’s case and also that of Mohammad Asif who has again been caught in a positive dope test,” he pointed out.

Qadir regretted that the PCB has been running without a chairman for the last 25 days and said the vaccum needed to be filled quickly as it was hurting the game. He also asked the politicians not to make mockery of the PCB job as they were not trained to run such a technical institution.