Dr Nasim Ashraf has departed with unarguably the darkest legacy in Pakistan`s cricket history.

I n cricketing terms, Nasim Ashraf`s chequered tenure as PCB chairman has been a scratchy and embarrassing innings. He played lousy shots, missed many scoring opportunities and, in fact, was out several times, but kept surviving under protection from Umpire Musharraf.

So dependent was this batsman on the patronage of the umpire, that when Umpire Musharraf called it a day, Ashraf also walked. Yet while Ashraf had his time at the wicket, the team suffered.

If we saw such an innings in real cricket, we would deride it for selfishness, for keeping personal gain above the interests of the team. We would heap opprobrium on the batsman for committing the cardinal sin of violating the spirit of the game. Ashraf deserves no less. He did go out and play, but it wasn`t cricket.

Dr Nasim Ashraf is a contradictory man, full of private motivations instead of public actions. He was born and educated in Pakistan, earning a medical degree from Khyber Medical College in Peshawar in 1972. He moved to the United States for advanced training, specialising as a kidney physician. For several years he pursued private clinical practice in America in relative anonymity. He did maintain an active profile among the Pakistani immigrant community, as well as in the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America, but with a very limited circle of influence.

It appears that sometime in the mid-1990s, Dr Ashraf began his efforts for public recognition. In 1997, he launched an American-Pakistani platform based on public health and human development that found favour with the highest levels of the Pakistan government. From there on it was a matter of knowing the right man at the right time to get suitably positioned within Pakistan`s corridors of power.

If you look up Ashraf`s resume on Wikipedia, it is loaded with a series of glittering honours and awards. I counted 18, ranging from a lifetime achievement gold medal by the alumni of Khyber Medical College and a gold medal from the Institute of Overseas Pakistanis, to the Rosenthal Award by the American College of Physicians, the UNESCO award for literacy, and, of course, the obligatory Sitara-i-Imtiaz conferred by the President of Pakistan for “30 years of distinguished public service.” All this makes it very ironic that the thing he will be most remembered for is making a mess of Pakistan cricket.

In 2005, Dr Ashraf`s rising political connections allowed him to maneuver into the Pakistan Cricket Board`s ad hoc committee, the arbitrarily-appointed body that oversaw Pakistan`s cricket affairs after the PCB constitution had been suspended in 1999. Still, he remained unknown in cricket circles. Perhaps fittingly, he first came to public notice on a rather infamous day - August 20, 2006 - when Umpire Darrell Hair penalised Pakistan five runs for alleged ball-tampering in the fourth Test against England at the Oval and the team refused to come out after tea.

As the drama heated up, all TV cameras were trained on the balcony of the Oval pavilion where suited officials were seen in various states of anxiety and despair. The cast of characters included PCB chairman Shehryar Khan, Pakistan team manager Zaheer Abbas, and English Cricket Board chairman David Morgan. Ashraf`s presence was superfluous, yet he appeared the most vocal and animated. Even so, no one recognised him. With his salt-and-pepper bearded countenance many fans mistook him for Ehsan Mani, the then president of the International Cricket Council, who also happens to be of Pakistani origin.

In October 2006, Nasim Ashraf became chairman of the PCB. Shehryar Khan had fallen in disfavour after the Oval fiasco and Ashraf was well-positioned to slide in. The curse of cricket governance in Pakistan is that the chairman of the PCB is a hand-picked presidential appointee, and Ashraf had ingratiated himself sufficiently with Pervez Musharraf to qualify.

Nearly two years later, Ashraf now departs with unarguably the darkest legacy in Pakistan`s cricket history. A coach dead in mysterious circumstances, an ignominious World Cup exit, a humiliating doping scandal, and an underperforming and dispirited team slowly descending down the rankings table, are some of the most visible products from his tenure. He is also guilty of pursuing vendettas against players who dissented - such as Imran Farhat and Abdul Razzaq - regardless of their value to the team. He transformed Shoaib Akhtar`s disciplinary issues into a personalised confrontation that put the team`s best interests aside. And while he did organise one hugely successful domestic Twenty20 cup, he never followed up on it, and the opportunity to institute a popular home tournament has lapsed.

The one accomplishment Ashraf could conceivably claim is that he gave the PCB a constitution. In fact, the constitution he did produce was well over a year later than promised, and the draft had already been developed under his predecessor`s term. Ashraf kept up efforts to work greater powers for the chairman into the document, and eventually produced a quasi-democratic formula. While the regional bodies and major corporate teams do have a say, the governing body also includes hand-picked members and the chairman remains a political appointee, in effect rendering the whole set-up unaccountable.

There are some key lessons from the Nasim Ashraf saga, which present both a challenge and an opportunity for our newly-elected government. If the ruling coalition is indeed sincere about institutionalising democracy in < st1place>Pakistan, it should at the very least extend the same courtesy to Pakistan cricket. Musharraf himself is an avowed cricket fan. Yet whatever else he may or may not have done, he did a disservice to fellow cricket fans with the misguided selection of Nasim Ashraf.

The first step is to disentangle the appointment of the country`s top cricket administrator from political forces. Let Pakistan`s major cricket stakeholders - the regional associations and the departmental teams fielding teams in domestic championships - sit together to elect a leader and hold him accountable. The new government is making impressive claims of fixing the nation. If they can fix just the nation`s most beloved sport, that alone will make them victorious in our hearts.