A parliamentary sports committee will meet Pakistan President Asif Zardari to recommend changes in the national cricket set-up which lawmakers believe has failed, an official said Thursday. The parliamentary committee has grilled the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over its alleged poor management and the national team's dismal performance on tour in Australia. Pakistan lost the three-Test series 3-0 and five-match one-day series 5-0, a whitewash which prompted the committee and fans to demand the sacking of coach Intikhab Alam and PCB top officials, including chairman Ijaz Butt. Committee head Jamshed Dasti told reporters that members of the committee will soon meet Zardari, patron of the PCB. “We have already recommended the patron to sack Butt, who has failed to deliver, and sack coach Intikhab Alam, PCB chief operating officer Wasim Bari and bring some new people. Now we will request action,” Dasti said. The committee also recommended that PCB accounts be frozen to stop alleged financial irregularities. Former PCB chief selector Iqbal Qasim, who resigned over the poor performance in Australia, criticized a lack of team discipline. “There is lack of discipline among the team players,” Qasim told the committee. “All players were free to issue statements and (each) said whatever he liked during the Australia tour. “There should be some discipline in the team and all those who violated the rules must be punished,” Qasim, who refused to rescind his resignation, told a two-day committee hearing. Butt has vowed to fight on, refusing to resign. Dasti told mediamen Wednesday he had asked the 71-year-old Butt to resign and let Pakistan cricket move forward under a young leadership. Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf meanwhile vowed in Karachi Thursday to fight on as skipper despite a hint from the cricket chief that a new captain would be appointed after Test and one-day drubbings in Australia. “If the chief selector has resigned it's his thinking,” Yousuf told reporters on his return from Australia Thursday. “I didn't do badly as captain, not as badly that I should resign or quit. “I accepted captaincy when no one was willing to take captaincy for the tours. I took it (captaincy) only because of the country and will continue for the country in future,” he added. Yousuf said Butt's statement had not been good for team morale as it had raised uncertainty about who would be the next captain. “Under the circumstances we went there, I think we did well to draw the series in New Zealand. Our players were inexperienced but I think we did well in the Australia Tests,” said Yousuf. Yousuf said Shahid Afridi's ball-tampering in the fifth and final one-day international in Perth, for which he was handed a ban of two Twenty20 matches, was not good for the image of Pakistan cricket. Pakistan drew its Test series against New Zealand 1-1.
