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In the wake of the disastrous New Zealand tour, a word of advice to Pakistan cricket chief, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, has come from a legendary sports administrator who wants him to "accept responsibility for the rot and step down."

Air Marshal (Retd) Nur Khan, whose achievements as an administrator are etched in golden words in Pakistan cricket, hockey and squash history, told Dawn that although Tauqir has had a fair time at the helm of the cricket board, "we are today worse than ever before".

"When there is a high rate of unfitness, sickness, laziness and team morale is low, it can only be the basic responsibility of the person heading the institution," said Nur Khan, who headed the then Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP) from 1980 to 1984.

As many as half a dozen players including Wasim Akram and Abdur Razzaq dropped out during the New Zealand tour due to injuries where Pakistan lost the one-day contest 3-2 while drawing the Test series 1-1. "It is unheard of that half the team is unfit and Tauqir should accept total responsibility for this."

Nur Khan pointed out that so far Tauqir had totally been on the wrong track and had clearly failed to produce positive results.

"We have fallen so far behind that we will have to get modernised on all aspects including technique, training health care and preparation of pitches."

Terming the New Zealand tour as "chaotic", he felt that too many people were speaking up. "No one knew what the manager and the captain's roles were, it was an indication that there was no management."

He strongly defended the players and said the practice of the management to blame them for all the ills afflicting the sport was wrong. "Who is more important, the players or Tauqir," he questioned.

He also took a swipe at the Pakistan manager to New Zealand, Faqir Aizazuddin, who in his tour report, first published by Dawn last week, had criticised some of the senior players and also Javed Miandad, who was the coach. "A manager appointed only for one tour commenting on the players and the coach and blaming the seniors is not on."

Nur Khan dismissed the whole idea of removing the senior players and inducting in new ones as "nonsense".

"You just can't do without the senior players. A person like Wasim Akram is one of the exceptional players of this era. He obviously has his weaknesses but it was the management's job to nurture him like an outstanding horserace. He should have been the captain today had he been handled intelligently.

"Players are our treasure and the ones who deliver the goods. They are the raw material that is to be made into steel and that is the responsibility of the management." But he observed that the "unstable management" was not allowing the players to flourish.

"Destroying the career of a player is the easiest thing to do. All you have to do is not select the player. The job of the management should be to protect the players from their weaknesses that are bound to be there," said Nur Khan, who was also once the president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation during the 80s when the national side had all major title in its bag.

Nur Khan explained that although there had been so many changes in the top management of cricket with some of them being destructive managements, the team, he said was still there.

"This shows that the material is still there, the resilience and the capabilities of our players are there but it is a total lack of making sure that the head of the cricket board is first held responsible for whatever wrong occurs," the retired Air Marshal noted.

He felt that it was "absolutely necessary" at this stage to have foreign coaches and dubbed Geoff Boycott's recent two-week coaching stint to train Academy players as "meaningless".

"You have to look for the best man, with a proven track record who should be able to remove the players' weaknesses. He should have the aptitude to do this. Unless you are willing to do that sort of thing, hitting the top is not on,"he remarked.

He noted that the change in Indian mentality had come about largely because they hired New Zealander John Wright as coach. "Coaching is a very specialised job and whosoever the Pakistan Cricket Board decides to bring in, should not be allowed to experiment and learn at the cost of the Pakistan team."

He said it was about time that the management learnt to accept responsibility if the team does not perform. "In any institution the key man responsible is the CEO, but in our country unfortunately he has always got away scotfree."

© Dawn