Zaka Ashraf unconvinced by previous government's efforts on cricket

Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf opened up about the possible change in PCB management following Imran Khan's removal from the PM office and talked about other things including how the PSL foundation was laid and more.

In an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan, Zaka Ashraf said that PCB should adopt the ICC's suggestion for the selection of PCB chairman.

"The best operational method is the one which ICC provided us; the Patron was to nominate 2-3 people for the position after going through their credentials and overall ability. The elected board will then select one of those nominations after the election. This is called a nomination-based election," he explained.

Commenting on Imran Khan's tenure, Zaka Ashraf remained largely unconvinced by Khan's efforts to improve Pakistan's cricket.

"We had a lot of expectations from Imran Khan when he took over the governance. But the first thing he did was force many cricketers into unemployment as some are earning money through driving rickshaws while others are still hoping for a ray of sunshine," he said.

"In my time, people earning Rs. 2 lakhs to 5 lakhs are now earning over 15 lakhs whereas players who were earning merely Rs. 20,000, they are now unemployed," Ashraf slammed the PCB.

In addition to that, Ashraf further added that PCB should have merged the departmental and regional cricket instead of adopting the approach that they did.

Former PCB chairman opened up about his brainchild, which was the Pakistan Super League (PSL) project.

"I remember sitting in the chairman's office and I thought to myself, all the accomplished cricketing nations have their own domestic league. That is when I decided to call a meeting of PCB board members and tabled the discussion," he said.

"Everyone opposed the idea and stated that this is not something which we [PCB management] can do. I did not pay any attention to their concerns because I wanted Pakistan to have its own domestic league," he added.

"I called upon the organizers of the IPL and we had a committee discussion in Dubai where we discussed how to lay the foundation for PSL. The initial process lasted for more than a year because we had to lay the groundwork for everything; from rules, regulations, and job descriptions of all the candidates involved. I requested the ICC Chief Executive of that time and asked him to become the brand ambassador."