Karachi, Jan 28 : Former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan today urged President Asif Ali Zardari to reform the national game of cricket, which he said was in as much of a mess as the country.

"If Zardari really wants to help Pakistan cricket then he must allow it to be an institution. It should be constitution-based and have an elected chairman with elected representatives," The News quoted Khan, as saying.

Pakistan's cricketing woes saw Shoaib Malik being replaced as captain by Younus Khan following the team's humiliating 234-run loss, their worst one-day defeat.

The change was the third major reshuffle in as many months. In October Zadari appointed Ijaz Butt chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, following Nasim Ashraf's resignation.

Butt then sacked Australian coach Geoff Lawson for poor team performance.

"Our cricket is as much in the mess as is the country," said Khan. Khan, who led Pakistan to their only World Cup triumph, in Australia in 1992, and is now in politics, said the country's head of state appointing the cricket board chairman was the bane of Pakistan cricket.

"No way should the president of the country appoint the cricket chief," said Khan.

The president of Pakistan is patron of the cricket board and appoints its chairman, unlike in countries abroad in which the chairman is elected. Khan said cricket needed to be organised properly in a country obsessed with the game. (ANI)