Shaharyar rejects report against Zakir

PCB chairman defies inquiry committee’s suggestions; claims findings not part of mandate.

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan has rejected the inquiry report, submitted by the board’s own committee, regarding U19 team manager Zakir Khan’s disciplinary issues at the ICC U19 Word Cup.

Zakir had been accused of being absent from some of the matches at the U19 World Cup in Bangladesh last month and also for forcing the team’s captain and head coach to elect to bat first against West Indies in the quarter-final when both the captain and head coach wanted to bowl first and take advantage of the bowler-friendly conditions.



A two-member inquiry committee — comprising PCB Board of Governors’ members Naeem Gillani and Agha Zahid — had suggested that serious action should be taken against Zakir.

However, despite the committee’s recommendation, a PCB official close to the matter revealed that Shaharyar rejected the report.

“On one hand, Shaharyar wants to improve things in the PCB, while on the other, he rejected the inquiry committee report against Zakir Khan just because he is cousin of legendary Imran Khan,” a PCB official told The Express Tribune.



Meanwhile, another PCB official revealed that the reason Shaharyar rejected the report was because the report’s mandate was not to give recommendations on Zakir’s future.

“The chairman felt that the committee was never asked to submit their recommendations on Zakir’s fate and they worked outside their mandate, hence the rejection,” said a PCB official. “This committee, however, has now given a new recommendation that Zakir should never be appointed manager again and if the chairman accepts this recommendation, only then would the PCB management proceed with the case.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2016.

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