Pakistani legislators want PCB to take action, Call for Ijaz Butt’s resignation
Pakistan’s National Assembly's Standing Committee on Sports has threatened to resign in the face of the embarrassing fiasco Pakistan’s cricket team finds itself in, following allegations of match and spot fixing against several players. Iqbal Mohammad Ali, who heads the committee, blamed the Pakistan Cricket Board for the humiliation Pakistan is facing.
The entire administration is now being blamed for the scandal that has taken an ugly turn on international media. Pakistan is already struggling to salvage its reputation and gain some credibility in the face of claims that the leadership and the country are corrupt. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports has been demanding the removal of Ijaz Butt for a long time now but to no avail. Earlier in the month the same parliamentarian, Iqbal Mohammad Ali, who heads the parliament’s committee on sports wrote a scathing letter to the President stating that Butt’s administration has been responsible for turning a quality side to the status of “minnows”.
"The chairman and his close aides have shoddily let down your confidence in them by making a mockery of management ethics at the board", wrote Ali. "It is therefore recommended that a very dynamic and energetic administrator be made the chairman of the board so that the affairs of cricket in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 are run professionally. (The) incompetence of Mr. Ijaz Butt has already brought enough shame for our country at international level".
This is not the first time that Mr http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 has been in the line of fire. Earlier he has been criticized by several senior Pakistani cricket players and senior cricketers, who have been part of PCB. He has taken numerous u-turns and is also partially responsible for the mismanagement of the Sri-Lankan cricket team who were apparently promised presidential level security but were dangerously let down on the streets of Lahore.
PCB as an institution needs to root out corruption and nepotism from its system, with several players on the team with political backing or a connection in the PCB. Several senior players had joined the PCB only to resign later on, and Ali said that they had resigned due to the egocentric attitude of Ijaz Butt, these included Iqbal Qasim, Aamer Sohail and Abdul Qadir.
In another interesting revelation made by the parliamentary committee, they have revealed that it was because of internal intrigues and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 being averse to bookmakers that had resulted in his resignation from Test cricket. The standing committee has yet again written a letter to the Patron-in-Chief of PCB, Asif Ali Zardari, to remove Ijaz Butt, and send in a new administration to handle the issue that has set the international media on fire. They have also demanded the removal of the manager of the team, Yawar Saeed, and the coach of the Pakistani team.
“We have also asked the government to take legal action against the players involved and send them to jail”, he said.
It would be interesting to note, that both Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed the players who became controversial due to the Justice Qayyums report on match fixing in the year 2000. Due to their alleged involvement with the bookmakers during their tenure with Pakistan, now hold important positions in the Pakistan and England squad. While Waqar Younis is the coach of the Pakistani team, Mushtaq Ahmed is presently the bowling coach of England.
He also alleged that Saeed has been supporting “certain groups of players, which is destroying the unity”. These allegations were made earlier this month, and the recent fiasco has harmed the game of cricket as much as it has harmed Pakistan. Also, it casts some serious doubts over the involvement of the team management that was accompanying the national side in England.
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