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| Jamshed Ahmed Dasti, Chairman Standing Committee on Sports, chairing the committee meeting at Parliament House in Islamabad.—APP/File Cricket |
Patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports Chairman Jamshed Ahmed Dasti for a grilling session over having accused the Pakisan cricket team of ‘deliberately losing’ the pool match against Australia in order to push India out of the ICC Champions Trophy, Dawn learnt on authority on Friday.
Mr Dasti, a PPP legislator, has remained a stark critic of the national cricket team’s performance in the recent event. His statement over the matter added fuel to the already started fire of match fixing allegations involving the national squad.The Indian media, too, later on carried Mr Dasti’s statement as an important cricket-related story.
However, Pakistan team Coach Intikhab Alam has dubbed the news item as a malicious propaganda engineered by the Indian media against the Pakistan cricket team.
‘He [Mr Dasti] has been summoned by the PCB patron-in-chief regarding his outburst against the team as his statement has badly affected the morale of the players while damaging team spirit,’ a senior official, close to the development, told Dawn on Friday.
The NA body had earlier summoned PCB’s top brass including team captain Younis Khan to explain their reasons for having lost the match against the Aussies in the Champions Trophy.
A disgusted Younis had even decided to quit as captain of the team as a result of being questioned over the matter in addition to the continuous criticism on his role as a captain in the media but he later withdrew his resignation.
The NA committee in its meeting also accepted the explanation given by the national coach and the skipper.
The Dawn |
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