KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf should take responsibility for all types of performances of the Pakistan side and its team management.

These views were expressed by former PCB chairman Khalid Mahmood while talking to a private television channel on Sunday night in response to Zaka’s reported statement that he does not interfere in matters of the team management and other committees.

The debate took place in the wake of the controversy in which all-rounder Abdul Razzaq accused captain Mohammad Hafeez that he dropped him from the team in the semi-final of the World Twenty20 against Sri Lanka.

On the other hand Hafeez had in his press comments said Razzaq was dropped by the team management and not by him.

“Being the head of the PCB, Zaka Ashraf is fully responsible for what is happening in Pakistan cricket. He cannot absolve himself of what is happening in the board,” Khalid said.

“These decisions are taken and recommended to him by his hand-picked committees. So he should also take the responsibility for the good and bad,” added Khalid, who resigned as the PCB boss after Wasim Akram’s Pakistan team suffered a humiliating defeat against Australia in the final of the 1999 World Cup in England.

“Being the head of an institution it is always the head of the department who should take responsibility for all the acts whether good or bad,” he remarked.

Commenting on the controversy surrounding international umpire Nadeem Ghauri’s claim that he had informed an unnamed PCB official about the corrupt offer to him.

“If Nadeem’s claim is correct then this is a criminal negligence on the part of the PCB which has brought bad name to the country,” Khalid pointed out.

“If he [Nadeem] had informed the PCB, they should have acted and informed the ICC of the episode which could have enhanced Pakistan’s reputation.”—Agencies