Pakistan face inquiry after debacle in Australia

Amid talks of drastic changes in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as well as in the national side after the disastrous tour of Australia, Federal Sports Minister Ejaz Hussain Jakhrani on Monday said he has asked PCB for an inquiry report on the "shameful" performance of the team in Australia.

Dropping hints that he would be pressing for a new management in the cricket board, Jakhrani told reporters that he would talk to the chief patron of PCB Pakistan President Asif Zardari and ask him to look into possible changes in the cricket set-up in the country.

"The team's performance was shameful and disappointing for everyone. We have already told the PCB chairman Ejaz Butt to send us an inquiry report on the team's performance in Australia," he said.

Pakistan suffered whitewash in both the three-match Test and five-game ODI series and as if the humiliation was not enough stand-in skipper Shahid Afridi was slapped a two T20 International ban for ball tampering during the fifth one-dayer in Perth.

Worse still, it is now confirmed that skipper Mohammad Yousuf has left the team hotel to return home after a tiff with coach Intikhab Alam before the start of the fifth ODI over team selection issues.

"Afridi has been asked to return home after his ban but Yousuf, who is not part of the T20 squad, left for Sydney immediately after the fifth ODI as he wants to return to Pakistan," one source said.

"Younis Khan is also not part of the T20 squad but interestingly he will return after two days," the source added.

With pressure mounting on the government to take radical steps to stem the string of problems in the cricket set-up, well placed sources confirmed that Pakistan cricket is in for an upheaval soon.

"A lot of changes can be expected at the board and team levels because the general opinion now is that Pakistan cricket has to move forward," one source said.

He said that fed up with the politics in the team, Waqar Younis, who was the bowling coach for the Australian tour, has shown no interest in renewing his contract while Australian trainer David Dwyer had also verbally informed the management that he didn't want to continue with his job.

"The captaincy is now a major issue as is the coaching positions in the team. There is every likelihood the board will ask Younis Khan to come back as Test captain and make Afridi the one-day skipper," the source said.

"Yousuf is out of the equation and he has now lost his job as captain," he added.

Sources also said that the team's disastrous performance in Australia will also have a lot of bearing on which players get the central contracts for 2010.