CRICKET: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan resigned yesterday, one day after Younis Khan declined the captaincy for this month's Champions Trophy in India. Shaharyar said the Younis Khan episode, which followed the Oval Test controversy in August, had contributed to his decision.

"These two incidents . . . spoiled an otherwise productive period for me. My tenure was until December 2006 so I decided to go now," said Shaharyar. "Since the World Cup is just five months away I wanted to give time to the new chairman to adjust before the tournament."

A PCB official said Shaharyar's resignation, submitted two days ago, was accepted by the chief patron of the board, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. "The new chairman will be announced on Saturday but the indications are it will be Dr Naseem Ashraf, a member of the board's ad-hoc committee," said director of cricket operations Saleem Altaf.

Pakistan are facing a compensation claim from the England and Wales Cricket Board for more than £800,000 in lost revenue, Altaf said. Visiting captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and his team, angry the umpires had penalised them five runs for alleged ball-tampering, refused to carry on playing in the fourth Test.

Although Inzamam was subsequently cleared of ball-tampering charges, he was banned for four one-day matches by the International Cricket Board. Younis was named skipper in Inzamam's place for the Champions Trophy but withdrew on Thursday, saying he did not want to be a "dummy captain". The board then appointed Mohammad Yousuf as skipper.

Meanwhile, the PCB has rejected misgivings by the ICC over the appointment of Mushtaq Ahmed as assistant coach at the Champions Trophy. Mushtaq was one of the seven players named in a match-fixing inquiry between 1998 and 2000 over allegations that some Pakistani players had fixed matches.