'Rameez shouldn't have taken up commentary' - Tauqir

Tauqir Zia, the former chairman of the Pakistan board, has said that Rameez Raja should not have taken up commentary duties during the recently concluded series against India.

Tauqir spoke to reporters during a book-launching function and said that Rameez should have given full attention to his job as chief executive of the board and looked to avoid controversies and occurances of mismanagement. "It was not wise to continue with this assignment during this series and I must say that he [Rameez] should have taken all the measures in consideration to motivate the team to a level where it could perform up to expectations."

Tauqir admitted that during his tenure as chairman, both he and Rameez had shared the workload. However, he felt that Rameez was under much more pressure after Shaharyar Khan had taken over as the chairman.

There was also a touch of optimism as he spoke about correcting the chinks in the Pakistan side. He insisted that negative criticism could be very damaging and that it should be stopped instantly. "Losing to India does not mean [the] end of cricket. The PCB authorities should sit together and the grey areas of the team should be handled professionally."