Younus Khan offers to resign as captain

ISLAMABAD Skipper of the Pakistan cricket team Younus Khan handed over his resignation to Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ijaz Butt at the Parliament House on Tuesday after attending the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports. Later, Federal Minister for Sports Pir Aftab Hussian Shah Jillani requested the PCB not to accept the resignation of the skipper. However, the final decision will be made in the PCB Governing Board meeting, which will be held on October 19 at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. Earlier, Younus Khan presented his resignation to Chairman PCB in the meeting but Ijaz Butt returned it back. On this occasion, the Standing Committee on Sports advised Younus that committee was not demanding his resignation. However, he can submit his resignation to the head of the PCB after the meeting. It would be an internal issue of PCB and Younus Khan, chairman of the committee Jamshed Dasti said. Younus said that he toiled hard for the position. It is not possible for me to reply the questions of committee as the head of the national team. I played with my broken finger in the semi-final. I could sit outside but the coach and manager encouraged me to lead the team in the vital match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2009, he added. Younus Khan, who played 63 Test, 194 ODI and 22 T20 matches, further said that he dropped a catch at the vital stage against New Zealand in the semi-final because he was trying to save his broken finger. I could take rest for four week sand it would have been easier for me but I led my team to make a mark in the history of cricket. We won the Twenty20 World Cup and we played semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy. It is excellent performance of the national team, he maintained. It is pertinent to mention here that in the second semi-final ICC Champions Trophy, skipper Younus Khan dropped a crucial catch of Grant Elliott who scored 70 not out. Later, Indian media levelled the allegations of match fixing against Younis Khan and coach Intakhab Alam. Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports Jamshad Dasti summoned the House to look into the match fixing allegations. On Tuesday, Younus Khan also requested the Standing Committee not to level these allegations in future. He further said that he performed well except for couple of series. I sacrificed for cricket and got the match-fixing allegations in return. I cannot face even my family members after that dropped catch and these allegations. This is propaganda against Pakistan and Pakistani players. I do not want to stay as the captain of Pakistan cricket team, he concluded. Younus once stepped down from his role as stand-in captain, days before the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, because he was unhappy with the board administration. Then, after the administration was changed, however, he took up the role again. A few months later, after the World Cup 2007 and Inzamam-ul-Haqs resignation, he turned down the offers of captaincy. Later, he took over as full-time captain in February this year 2009, after Shoaib Malik was pushed aside. Younus Khan has scored 5260 runs in the 63 Tests and 5676 in 194 One Day Internationals. He also scored 16 centuries and 21 fifties in the Test and 6 centuries and 37 fifties in the ODI matches so far. Younus claimed 102 catches in ODI and 67 in Test matches. He played only 22 Twenty 20 matches for Pakistan and scored 432 run with the average of 25.41.

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