Tashkent, Feb 28 (IANS): The Cricket Federation of Uzbekistan (CFU) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Asadullah Khan, former CEO of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), as its new cricket director.

Asadullah previously served as the selector of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and ex-head coach of the Qatar cricket team.

"The Cricket Federation of Uzbekistan (CFU) welcomed Asadullah Khan to the management board as a Cricket Director. The CFU Board Members unanimously supported Asadullah Khan's name for this position because of his rich and diverse experience in the field of cricket," it said in a statement.

"We believe that Asadullah Khan will elevate cricket awareness in the country into new level, and, we at CFU will help each other to achieve new heights on our road to become the first T20, ODI and Test Cricket playing nation in CIS," said CFU's President Aziz G. Mihliev during the Annual Board Meeting held Wednesday in Tashkent.

Speaking on his appointment, Asadullah said: "I will try my level to take Uzbekistan cricket to the next level. We are working very hard, Aziz Mihliev, the chairman of the Cricket Federation of Uzbekistan is also working very hard, our goal is to take the sport to highest level."

He also expressed gratitude towards the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and International Cricket Council (ICC) for the promotion of cricket in Central Asia.

"We will work on the planning of the series with other countries. We have very good players in Uzbekistan. Hopefully, we will be able to take our game to next level. All the credit goes to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and International Cricket Council (ICC), cricket is spreading in the Central Asia. ACC and ICC are working continuously to spread the cricket all of the world," Asadullah added.

The Cricket Federation of Uzbekistan was founded in December 2019. It started to deploy cricket in Uzbekistan from the year 2020 when the board of directors was formed within the federation.