KARACHI: Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Zaka Ashraf says the state of the game in the country has drastically fallen after his departure from the board.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in February removed Ashraf as chairman of the PCB, appointing former interim PCB chief Najam Sethi, to run the affairs of the PCB. Ashraf says the conditions have since deteriorated.
“I left Pakistan cricket in a good standing. But it has gone down,” he said in statement on Monday.
“When I was the chairman, Pakistan made a historic clean-sweep against world number one England in Tests.”
According to Ashraf, the team was united when he was at the helm and cited Pakistan’s early ouster from the recently concluded World Twenty20 as an example of the discord that has since bred in the squad.
Mohammad Hafeez's team failed to qualify for the semi-finals of World Twenty20 after winning the crown under Younis Khan in England in 2009. It was the first occasion in the short history of the World Twenty20 that Pakistan failed to get into the last four.
In a dig at former captains Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik, Ashraf said it was surprising that the team performed the way it did despite the presence of “three captains in the side”
“These captains were playing for their personal causes instead of team's cause,” he commented.
“I felt disunity and fear within the team.”
Ashraf also expressed his surprise on the induction of ‘tainted’ players in various roles in the board despite recommendations of the Justice Qayyum report which advised against these players taking up any position of responsibility in the country’s cricket setup.
