Pakistan chief cricket selector quits

Pakistan chief cricket selector Iqbal Qasim has resigned after the national team failed to win a match in either tests or limited-overs internationals during its just-completed tour of Australia. "Iqbal Qasim has e-mailed his resignation," a Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said. Australia completed a 3-0 whitewash of Pakistan in the test series, before winning the one-day series 5-0. Pakistan suffered an additional blow in the last one-dayer at Perth on Sunday when stand-in captain Shahid Afridi was banned for two Twenty20 matches for ball tampering.

Qasim was made chief of a five-member selection committee when he replaced former legspinner Abdul Qadir in July last year. Qasim was reported by local media as saying it was his moral responsibility to accept the results in Australia. "After this poor performance (in Australia) it is better I should quit and take the responsibility," Qasim was quoted as saying by the Urdu language daily Jang. Pakistan parliament's standing committee on sports welcomed Qasim's decision to step.

"Qasim has setup a good tradition by stepping down," the chairman of the committee Jamshed Dasti told reporters. Dasti has already recommended to the Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the patron of the PCB, that he remove the board's top hierarchy. Dasti has summoned the country's top cricket board officials to a meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday. "I hope the rest of the PCB leadership, including chairman Ijaz Butt and coach Intikhab Alam, also quit," he said.

*AP