Karachi, Oct. 13: Pakistan cricket plunged into fresh crisis on Tuesday with Younis Khan stepping down as captain of the national team in dramatic circumstances and refusing to take back his resignation despite persuasion by the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

The high drama took place during the hearing of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports in Islamabad which was being held to discuss the performance of the national team in the recent Champions Trophy.

Younis submitted his resignation during the hearing to the PCB chairman Ejaz Butt, protesting the statement made by the chairman of the Standing Committee on sports Jamshed Dasti, who had alleged that the team had deliberately under-performed against Australia and New Zealand in the eight-nation event.

More drama followed as Butt returned the resignation to Younis and Jamshed Dasti told the angry cricketer that his statement had been misunderstood and he never made any match-fixing allegations against him or his teammates.

But the 31-year-old had made up his mind and again handed over his resignation to Butt. — PTI