• Tools:
• Save |
• Print |
• E-mail |
• Most Popular |

Pakistan cricket chief 'resigns'

Adjust font size:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan cricket chief Naseem Ashraf has offered his resignation and three of his selection panel have quit as the fallout from their disastrous World Cup exit continued on Tuesday.

Ashraf told state President Pervez Musharraf, who is the patron of the Pakistan cricket board (PCB), that he wanted to be relieved of his duties.

"Ashraf faxed his resignation last night and it's now up to the patron whether he accepts it or not," PCB communications director Ahsan Malik told The Associated Press.

Pakistan lost to minnows Ireland on Saturday and the following day coach Bob Woolmer died after being found unconscious in his hotel room in Jamaica.

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq also said he would step down and retire from one-day internationals after their final World Cup group match against Zimbabwe on Wednesday.

A Pakistan Cricket Board statement earlier on Tuesday said chief selector Wasim Bari had tendered his resignation and those of the rest of the national selection committee to the board.

The statement said: "The committee's tenure was up to the 2007 World Cup and that it shares responsibility for the team's performance in the World Cup."

Bari told private AAJ television: "Our team has not performed well and for this reason the entire selection committee has resigned.

"I had sent the resignations two days ago to the PCB, but the chairman was touring interior Sindh (province). I spoke to him briefly."

Bari told the television station he had "heard about" Ashraf's resignation -- which several newspapers here reported without giving a source -- but could not confirm it.

President Musharraf in a television interview late Monday also expressed his disappointment. "I am as dejected and disappointed, as the whole nation, on the performance of the cricket team," he said.

Protests erupted in several Pakistan cities in the immediate aftermath of the defeat, one of the biggest upsets in cricket history, but became muted once the tragic news of Woolmer's passing became known.

Taliban video said to show captured U.S. soldier The Taliban's release of a new video purportedly showing a captured American soldier in Afghanistan "is a horrible act," a U.S. military official said Friday.

---

• Boeing's 787, as innovative inside as outside
• Salvation Army major slain on Christmas Eve
• Taliban video allegedly shows U.S. soldier
• Brittany Murphy laid to rest on Christmas Eve
• Pope delivers Christmas message after attack

• Holiday blizzard hits much of Midwest
• Military drops pregnancy ban in Iraq
• Pope appears unscathed after attack
• Salvation Army major killed; kids see
• Oklahoma firm recalls beef in 6 states

• Talkin' 'Icky Thump' blues (1:40)
• 'Why you treat yourself bad?' (3:15)
• Soviet culture returns (3:47)
• Unseemly rap lyrics targeted (3:29)
• Now In The News (Updated: 11:59 a.m. ET)