ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 10 December 2003 — The government yesterday appointed a former diplomat as the new chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board, replacing Tauqir Zia who resigned last week for personal reasons.
Shaharyar Khan, 69, a former career diplomat at Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, got the assignment at a time when the nation’s relatively young and inexperienced team is striving to regain its past glory.
Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992, but in this year’s edition in South Africa failed to make it past the first round. However, the team has just completed a 5-0 whitewash in a one-day series at home against an under-strength New Zealand team.
Khan, who was the manager of the struggling Pakistan squad at this year’s World Cup, said he has accepted the new position offered to him by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who is also the patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board. He promised to bring “honesty, justice and discipline” to the job. “I would have to study all the aspects of the working of the cricket board. I have to sit with other officials (of the PCB) and chalk out future strategy,” Khan told reporters.
“I would like a team of people around me who are dedicated and help me in promotion of the game in Pakistan.” Khan will take charge from Zia on Dec. 15.
Zia first tendered his resignation last year when Pakistan scored its lowest-ever run total in a Test match against Australia in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. But Musharraf asked him to stay on at the time. He was also the head of the board during Pakistan’s failure at the World Cup. He finally resigned Dec. 1 for personal reasons after serving as board chairman for four years.
Khan served as manager for the Pakistan team that played three Test matches in India in 1999.
