Zardari knows nothing about cricket: Imran Khan

KARACHI: Former skipper Imran Khan, on Tuesday, blamed President Asif Ali Zardari for the present mess and problems in Pakistan cricket.

"The tragedy of our cricket system and governance is that it has been run on ad-hoc basis and that is causing all the problems," Imran said on a television channel.

He said the system of the President being chief patron and appointing the chairman of the board was not longer workable in Pakistan cricket.

"What do you expect when President Zardari himself knows nothing about the ABC of cricket and he is chief patron of the board," Imran added.

"President Zardari has a personal liking for Ejaz Butt that is why he will never remove him as chairman of the board," he said.

The legendary pacer, who is now a leading political figure, said changing of captains in Pakistan cricket was nothing new and it had been happening in the past well.

"This culture of changing captains frequently is nothing new and nothing will improve unless we improve and change our basic structure and system of governance of cricket."

Imran said Pakistan cricket was blessed with natural talent and this was reflected in the performance of the national under-19 team in the ICC World Cup.

"We are not short of talent, we are short of good governance and a good system," he said.

Imran said he didn't believe there were groups in the national team which was blamed for all the poor performances of the side.

"The fact is that the Australians are a very good side and they have a very good technique of playing cricket. In the longer version of the game they will win but when we play T20 cricket, Pakistan will win this is because of difference of approach," he said.

Imran refused to comment on the Shahid Afridi ball tampering incident insisting neither was he aware of it neither had he seen it on television.