Accepting moral responsibility for the team's shocking early elimination from the World Cup, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Naseem Ashraf has offered his resignation.

According to PCB sources, Ashraf has submitted his resignation to President General Pervez Musharraf, who is also the chief patron of the board.

"Ashraf spoke to an official of the presidency and told him he wished to resign in the wake of the team's poor performance. He told it was entirely his decision what he wanted to do," the source added.

"Whether the president has accepted his resignation is not known as yet," one source said.

Ashraf had taken over as the PCB chairman last October after the resignation of Shaharyar Khan and the local media launched a scathing attack on him, demanding his resignation for Pakistan's World Cup exit following their humiliating defeat to Ireland.

Initially, Ashraf had said that he would not resign as he had been in the board only for six months and would announce a new action plan for the future.

But the PCB chief on Tuesday told reporters in Mirpurkhas that he was disturbed with the team's performance and wanted to apologise to the nation for letting them down.