KARACHI: Former PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf believes that the game of cricket has suffered since his departure and is on the decline due to lack of administrative policies of the board.
“I left Pakistan cricket in a good shape and with a sound standing, but it has rapidly gone down in the recent days,” he said in a statement on Monday.
Zaka said former champions Pakistan’s ouster from the first round of the ICC World Twenty20 was highly disappointing and depressing for the nation despite the tall claims made by the current regime.
He was of the view that Pakistan team’s showing had gone down in the T20, One-day Internationals as well in Test matches.
Mohammad Hafeez’s Pakistan team for the first time ever failed to qualify for the semi-finals of World T20 after winning the crown under Younis Khan in England in 2009.
“When I was the chairman, Pakistan made a historic clean- sweep against [then] world number one England in Test series in the UAE,” he recalled. “Then there were other notable victories which showed the team was on the rise.”
Zaka alleged that current PCB chief Najam Sethi was making tall claims by announcing various tours and an income of Rs30 billion by the next decade but there was nothing concrete on hand to show for it.
He said he was the first elected chairman of the PCB and ended the decade-long ad hocism in the board and was honourably restored by the Islamabad High Court.
Zaka regretted that Pakistan performed poorly in the ICC World T20 in Bangladesh due to the presence of three captains in the team.
“These captains were playing for their personal gains instead of putting ahead the team cause,” he commented while in obvious reference to Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik who played all the matches in the World T20. “I felt there was a lot of disunion and groupings in the team and the defeat against the West Indies in the qualifying game made all of it very apparent,” he remarked.
He also expressed his surprise at the recent induction of tainted players in the PCB despite the recommendations of Justice Qayyum in his match-fixing report in the year 2000.
The former PCB chairman added that he had taken a principled stand against the ‘Big Three’ as per the wishes of the nation and the recent allgations against BCCI supremo Srinivasan had vindicated his stand.
