The current Pakistan Cricket Board could be replaced in days, said an ex-Pakistan player, one of a number of people in uproar at the PCB’s five-year ban on Shoaib Akhtar.

The PCB Chairman Nasim Ashraf said on Tuesday that fast bowler Shoaib, 32, will not be able to play any form of cricket in Pakistan for the next five years. His latest misdemeanour was for making in appropriate public comment against the PCB, who feel this offence was the last straw after a long line of disciplinaries.

“Disappointing is no word to describe Akhtar’s ban, I would call it pathetic and request the new political government to sack Nasim Ashraf-led Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB),” Sarfraz Nawaz, a former Test cricketer, was quoted as saying in The News.

“I have come to know that this Pakistan Cricket Board set-up, which has a personal vendetta against a talented bowler, will be removed and the high-ups have also decided on who will take over,” said Nawaz, who played 55 Tests for Pakistan and who himself was a controversial character in his playing days in the 1970’s.

Ashraf was brought in to replace Shariyar Khan as PCB Chairman in September 2006 to give the PCB  a better, claner and more transparent image.

His appointment followed the incident at The Oval in August 2006 when then skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq protested at being accused of ball tampering by umpire Darrell Hair and refused to play, forfeiting the fourth Test against England. Then Younis Khan quit the captaincy after days in the job, before changing his mind on Ashraf’s appointment, to take the team to India for the Champions Trophy.

Ashraf has received little sympathy from cricket figures in Pakistan and former skipper Javed Miandad is among them.

“I feel sorry for Shoaib but it is also true he has been involved in so many disciplinary cases,” Miandad told The Dawn.

“However, I would like to add here that it is the result of the PCB's leniency towards Shoaib's past blunders. But now his (latest) offence is not that grave as several Pakistan Test cricketers in the past have done this type of wrong act repeatedly and got away with it.”

Another ex-captain Rashid Latif, who skippered Shoaib in his time, felt the ban was another embarrassment for the country’s image in the cricket world.

“Banning Akhtar will harm Pakistan cricket,” said Latif. “Pakistan Cricket Board should have supported Akhtar more because there have been characters like Akhtar - there was John McEnroe in tennis and our own Aamir Sohail - who were temperamental yet talented and gave sports a lot to cheer.”

Imran Khan, politician and the man who led Pakistan to World Cup glory in 1992, also spoke out against the PCB: "It is totally unacceptable. This ban it literally ends his career. The board is destroying Pakistan cricket by banning players," Imran told the Express television channel, while also referring to the bans on players in the Indian Cricket League.

"These bans are weakening Pakistan cricket. A fine would have been fine for Shoaib. He has not committed a crime. The board must keep in mind that we also need to win matches and keep our pride in international cricket."

Former Pakistan batting star of the 1970's and 1980's Zaheer Abbas told Reuters: "He had some two years of cricket left in him and we should have taken advantage of him while maintaining discipline.

"I don't know what these people are trying to do. The cricketers are not schoolboys to be treated like this. Shoaib committed no big crime."

Latif said he believed the ban would be lifted in two months. Shoaib was banned from cricket for taking a banned substance in December 2006 but that was quashed on appeal.