Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday removed Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf, in the latest twist to a long-running saga dogging the national body.
It is the second time in less than a year that Ashraf has been removed and the board will now be temporarily run by an 11-member interim committee appointed by Sharif.
Ashraf’s removal by court order in May last year due to doubts over his election led to a series of legal challenges that critics say has damaged the sport in Pakistan.
A notice from the prime minister, who is also patron of the board, confirmed Ashraf’s ouster.
The reasons for Ashraf’s removal are still unknown, but sources pointed to his failure to give Pakistan a strong voice at a crucial International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Singapore on Saturday.
The world body approved a controversial revamp at the meeting that gave major powers and revenue to the “Big Three” of world cricket: India, Australia and England.
However, Ashraf, who had been due to announce a replacement for Dav Whatmore as head coach for Pakistan’s national team, insisted that he was still chairman.
“I have yet to see the notification,” he said in Lahore. “If I am removed I will consult my lawyers to decide the course of action.”
The interim committee has the power to select a new chairman, with journalist Najam Sethi the favorite to regain the post.
After Ashraf’s sacking in May last year, Sethi was name as chairman, but then another court ruling curtailed his powers.
Sharif in October last year imposed an ad hoc setup on the board and Sethi took over as chairman of an interim committee, but that situation changed again last month when a two-man division bench of the Islamabad High Court reinstated Ashraf.
In other cricketing news, ICC chairman-elect Narayanaswami Srinivasan yesterday suffered a blow when an Indian Supreme Court panel probing a match-fixing scandal said his son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, was guilty of illegal betting on games.
After an extensive probe, the three-member panel said allegations of Indian Premier League match-fixing against Meiyappan required further investigation, the Press Trust of India reported.
The panel, headed by retired judge Mukul Mudgal, suggested that Meiyappan may have passed on information to outsiders for betting during the Twenty20 competition, the news agency said. Meiyappan was team principal of the Chennai Super Kings, a league franchise owned by Srinivasan’s India Cements and captained by India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The court appointed the panel on Oct. 8 last year to investigate the scandal that rocked the popular tournament run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
The probe was separate from investigations by police, who have filed charges against a string of officials, players and bookmakers for illegal betting during the tournament. Mumbai police charged Meiyappan with forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy, breach of contract and handing critical team information to alleged bookmakers.
The panel spent four months interacting with players, league team owners, police, journalists, anti-corruption personnel and other stakeholders. Its 170-page report, with more than 4,000 pages of annexes, was handed to Supreme Court judges Ananga Kumar Patnaik and Jagdish Singh Khehar yesterday. The court will take up the report on March 7.
Also yesterday, New Zealand dropped Jesse Ryder and Doug Bracewell from the squad for the second Test against India on Friday for going on a late-night drinking session on the eve of the first Test.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but