Pak cricket is run on ad-hoc basis: Imran Khan

Former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan has said that cricket in Pakistan is run on an ad-hoc basis and the reason behind it is that the chairman of the cricket board is appointed and liked by the president of Pakistan, which according to him is the only qualification of the chairman.

"The aim should be to make Pakistan cricket an institution - this is what needs to be done. Cricket in Pakistan is run on an ad-hoc basis and the reason why it's ad-hoc is because the chairman of the cricket board is appointed by the president of Pakistan and the only qualification of the chairman is that the President of Pakistan likes him,” Pakpassion.com quoted Khan, as saying.

“The chairman is no longer accountable to anyone as long as the team keeps winning. If the team is winning, the chairman can then claim that he's succeeding and if the team loses then he changes the captain and that is why we get so many frequent changes in captaincy. Pakistan cricket needs to be democratic and it should have elected Associations and no place for sponsors. No sponsors should be able to field their team. This only happens in Pakistan, nowhere else does this happen," he added.     

Khan has said that a good cricket team should be focused on “good players and a good quality captain," rather than being obsessed with who the coach will be.

Waqar Younis is the latest in a long line of coaches who have found the role of coaching the Pakistan cricket team a stressful and difficult assignment. Khan said that coach is not the most important criteria for a good team.

"I think too much time and effort is spent and wasted on who the coach should be. Coaches basically have very limited ability to help a team and I don't understand this obsession with coaches, because basically Australia was not the best team because of their coach, they were the best team because they were a great team and they had a good domestic cricket structure which kept on throwing up good players and they had a good quality captain," Pakpassion.com quoted him, as saying.

"If a coach was such a big thing then Zimbabwe or Bangladesh or one of the other weaker teams could just have a good coach and he could transform the team. It cannot work like that. Yes, a captain can play a major role but not a coach. I always find that people do not understand that cricket is perhaps the only game that needs leadership and that needs a captain who needs to be a leader," Khan added.    

The legendary all-rounder and captain of the 1992 World Cup winning team and a veteran of 273 matches for Pakistan, made his comments during a visit to the UK.