Imran Khan accuses PCB of nepotism

Karachi, April 23 (IANS) Legendary all-rounder Imran Khan has accused the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) of nepotism.

Pakistan suffered a comprehensive 0-3 One-Day International (ODI) series loss to Bangladesh this week, losing the last match by eight wickets in Dhaka on Wednesday.

"Pakistan’s cricket will not improve as long as there are people in the cricket board who have come through nepotism and without any merit. Sadly the people in our cricket board don’t have any knowledge of cricket," the 62-year-old was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au on Thursday.

The 1992 World Cup-winning all-rounder said he did not expect Pakistan to lose as badly as they did and rued lack of proper cricketing infrastructure in the country.

"I never thought Pakistan would lose to Bangladesh 0-3 and drop to number eight in the ODI Rankings. Based on my 21-year experience of playing cricket I know that no country in the world has cricketing talent as good as Pakistan.”

“Although we still have good bowlers in Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Irfan, we are not producing quality batsmen because there is no proper cricket structure in Pakistan,” he said.

Imran also believes they need to revamp the cricketing system in the country and try and replicate facilities given in Australia.

"I have been suggesting for the last 30 years to revamp the system of cricket in Pakistan. The best batsman of Pakistan at the moment is Misbah-ul-Haq and he was given a chance at the age of 34. Mohammad Irfan was selected at the age of 30. At these ages players are normally thinking about retirement. It illustrates how poor the system of cricket has become in Pakistan,” he added.

"There is clearly a problem in the system which is not picking talent at the right time. We need to learn from countries like Australia who have ideal cricket structure.

I played in Australia for a season for New South Wales in the Shield and I can safely say that they have the best cricket system due to which their team is always on top and this is the reason they have won so many World Cups," he stated.