Embarrassment for PCB, PM Sharif; Zimbabwe banned former chairman for Pakistan cricket tour

Former Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Wilson Manase has been suspended for four years for leading their national team to a tour of Pakistan in May.

New Delhi: Even as the proposed India-Pakistan bilateral cricket series continues to befuddle everyone, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) were put in an embarrassing situation.

Former Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairman Wilson Manase has been suspended for four years by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) for leading their national team to a tour of Pakistan in May.

Critising the ban, the veteran lawyer has said the ban is an embarrassment for the PCB and and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

A report in Zimbabwean publication News Day quoted him as saying, that decision to ban him "embarrasses the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan who was so grateful of the tour that he wrote to our own President thanking him.”

“I did not single-handedly let the team go there with all the officials. The board is made up of individuals and the leader of the delegation was Ozias Bvute,” Manase added.

Zimbabwe toured Pakistan in May 2015 to become the first Test playing nation to visit the country after an attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009.

But the SRC ruled that proper procedures had not been followed before the Pakistan tour.

On Thursday, Manase said he will contest the ruling at the Administrative Court. He lost the chairman's post to Tavengwa Mukuhlani in August.