Mani suggests Ashraf to keep away from team affairs, players

Karachi: The former chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Ehsan Mani has suggested to the new chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zaka Ashraf to stay clear of the team affairs and avoid dealing directly with issues related to the players.

"I would just suggest him to leave the job of managing team affairs and dealing directly with the players to a specialised cricket wing," Mani, a Pakistani who remained ICC Chairman between 2003 and 2006, said. "He should set up a specialised cricket wing in the board which should only be dealing with the team and players related issues and should be run by former players," he added. Mani noted that in the past former heads of the PCB had interfered in team issues and dealt directly with players that resulted in a lot of problems for Pakistan cricket. The former ICC chief also advised Ashraf to focus completely on improving relations with the ICC and other boards, which were badly affected during the tenure of his predecessor Ijaz Butt, besides trying to bring back international cricket to Pakistan. "Most important for him is to bring back international cricket to Pakistan, which Butt could not do," said Mani. Mani also lashed out at the PCB for not doing enough in the spot-fixing saga, involving three Pakistani players -- Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir. "The board could have been more proactive. It is shameful that today these players have to appear in a crown court facing criminal charges." Insisting that the spot-fixing saga has badly hit the image of PCB and left it in a embarrassing position, Mani said, "I just feel more could have been done to avoid what we are seeing today." He also felt that the PCB should have bargained with the ICC when it asked member boards to approve the new governance system last year. "The PCB should have bargained that if the governance system was being changed for all boards then the new constitution should be on the lines of the world governing body of football (FIFA). "Like the FIFA governance rules, the PCB should have pressed that the ICC should also make it mandatory that even in bilateral series the concerned boards will not follow dictates from their government because that is what has prevented Pakistan and India from bilateral series," Mani said. PTI