Pakistan cricket boss refuses Khan’s resignation

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt is not willing to accept Younis Khan’s resignation as captain of Pakistan and hopes he can change his mind.

Khan handed in his resignation on Tuesday during the national assembly’s standing committee on sports meeting to look into allegations that Pakistan’s losses to New Zealand and Australia were fixed.

The charges had been made initially by an Indian newspaper, then retracted, before MNA Jamshed Dasti, the head of the committee, levelled similar charges and called the hearing.

Butt said Khan had handed in his resignation twice, once during the meeting and again afterwards, when he rushed to Butt’s car to hand him the letter again.

“I didn’t accept his resignation during the meeting and he then forced it on me in the car, and I didn’t accept it there either,” Butt told Cricinfo.

“He was very disturbed and perturbed by the whole affair.”

Butt was insistent that Khan was still the best man for the job. “In the next couple of days I am hoping to meet him. I want him to withdraw his decision, I want him to continue. We need him.

“Younis has done a tremendous job over the last eight months and we really want continuity in the team,” Butt said.

Pakistan won the Twenty20 World Cup under Khan’s captaincy before he quit the shortest form of the game and was replaced by Shahid Afridi.

Khan has defended his decision to resign as Pakistan cricket captain, saying he was shocked and demoralised by suggestions of match-fixing. But he said he had not closed the door on the captaincy.

“What I did was justified because the allegations really hurt me and my family. We are honourable people,” he said yesterday.

“But I am going to meet with the chairman of the (Pakistan Cricket) board this week and I will discuss my future frankly with him,” Khan said.

“The PCB now has to take a decision. I am available to talk to them but I can only rethink my decision on my own terms.

“Because of the accusations I couldn’t even face my brother.”

Members of the North West Frontier Province Assembly, in Khan’s home province, demanded that action be taken against Dasti, while the Mutthaida-e-Qaumi Movement, a coalition partner in the government, said it was considering countrywide protests. With Sapa-AFP, Reuters