Dubai : A lack of action from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in clamping down on players linked with suspect agent Mazhar Majid was the main factor that led to Shahid Afridi's shock resignation as Test captain and subsequent retirement from the five-day format.
The master-blaster not only raised eyebrows but drew plenty of flak for announcing his decision shortly after Pakistan were comprehensively beaten by Australia in the first Test series in July.
Afridi's manager, Dubai-based Umran Khan, told XPRESS: "It's one of the major factors as to why he basically gave up the Test captaincy.
"Bottom line is he informed the PCB prior to that series of these characters and his suspicions.
"But the PCB didn't seem to be taking his concerns seriously.
"Obviously as skipper you have a serious input into the running of the side. But if none of it is being taken on board, it must give you that feeling of ‘What am I doing here?'
"That was one of the contributing factors to Shahid's decision to not carry on as the Test skipper and actually contributed quite heavily to the decision to quit Test cricket," he added.
Afridi has resumed leadership duties for the two Twenty20 and four 50 over one day internationals. But as the cricketing world looks to recover from the spot-fixing allegations against the trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, Khan who also looks after the commercial interests of six other Pakistani players said it would be unfair to brand the entire team as cheats. "One of the things of paramount importance here is to remember we are talking about a few individual players. So we can't taint the whole Pakistan team with the same brush," said Khan, director of Aces Middle East, the Dubai-based company who manage Afridi as well as Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Fawad Alam, Shahzaib Hasan, Zulqarnain Haider and Yasir Hameed. "People are saying Pakistani cricket is crooked. We are talking about three or four individuals here. We need to keep that in perspective. I represent seven players and categorically these guys are not involved in this kind of rubbish."
Khan believes the only way the sport can be totally free of corruption is if the ICC made it mandatory for agents to be officially recognised.
"The ICC need to clamp down and have a framework in place whereby agents are regulated," he said. "We are not saying players can't associate with people. But they should have one recognised manager who deals with all their stuff.
"And that recognised manager should also be recognised by the PCB or the board. So they know they are not fraternising with people who have got any bad intentions."
