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A former Test cricketer has criticized a key official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for allegedly making ungentlemanly remarks on the former great cricketers of the country.

The accusation was made by former opening batsman Muhammad Ilyas against Ramiz Hasan Raja whom he alleged to have described the yesteryear Test cricketers "product by default".

Ilyas while addressing a press conference Thursday claimed that Ramiz had deliberately attempted to distort the history of Pakistan cricket and belittle the achievements of the former greats who put Pakistan amongst the top cricket playing nations of the world.

"It is unfortunate that there are certain elements in the PCB who are bent upon tarnishing the image of the country's former greats" he said.

"I strongly condemn Ramiz's remarks and to put the record straight I would remind him that greats like Nazar Muhammad, Fazal Mahmood, Imtiaz Ahmad, Khan Muhammad, Hafeez Kardar, Hanif Muhammad, Saeed Ahmad, Mushtaq Muhammad, Javed Burki, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Imran Khan and Asif Iqbal were the products of a well organized and strong club, school, college and domestic cricket structure.

" They all worked hard to beat the best teams in their days and indeed, none of them were ever coached by a foreigner", Ilyas said.

Ilyas was also against the practice of hiring of foreign coaches and firmly believed it was not a good idea in the presence of the country's own former Test stars of international repute who could do more good for their own youngsters than a foreigner.

"It is not just teaching them to hold a bat and running around, it is more to infuse a spirit of nationalism among the youngsters and make them mentally strong. And a foreign coach having no love and roots in Pakistan can not do this", he opined.

He claimed Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992 without the foreign coach and also alleged that the selection of Waseem Raja in the ICC Panel of Match Referees was also due to brotherly act of Ramiz.

© Dawn