Daily Times

LAHORE: Muhammad Zaka Ashraf is all set to take over reins of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), once again, after Najam Aziz Sethi pulled out of the race for the coveted Chairmanship on Tuesday. Sethi, who was appointed as the head of the PCB management committee, confirmed yesterday that he was no longer in the race to become the PCB Chairman. The 75-year-old, while sharing an update in a tweet, said that he doesn’t want to be a “bone of contention” between Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari. Sethi’s tweet was in reference to the political horse-trading over the PCB Chairman’s post, going on for the past two months. Shahbaz, who is also the PCB Patron, along with his elder brother Nawaz Sharif, Head of Muslim League (N), was supporting Sethi while Zaka was being supported by Pakistan Peoples’ Party, a prominent coalition partner in the current government.

But the stand taken by Asif Ali Zardari in favour of Zaka forced Prime Minister Shahbaz to withdraw his support for Sethi. The PPP has insisted that as they are the ones in charge of Pakistan sports, through the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), it maintained the right to nominate a candidate of their choosing. But after days of intense mediation between both parties, Sethi was compelled to make way for Zaka. This became evident when Zaka and Supreme Court lawyer Mustafa Ramday were nominated by the Prime Minister to join the PCB’s Board of Governors (BoG) on Tuesday. Traditionally in Pakistan cricket, it is the Prime Minister’s appointment to the PCB BoG who usually becomes the Chairman for a three-year term. While announcing his withdrawal on Twitter, Sethi further said: “Such instability and uncertainty is not good for PCB. Under the circumstances I am not a candidate for Chairmanship of PCB. Good luck to all stakeholders.”

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for IPC Ehsan Ur Rehman Mazari had reiterated that Ashraf, who has the backing of the PPP leadership, will become the next PCB Chairman. Mazari, while speaking in a local television show, said Sethi’s mandate, being the head of the management committee, was only to conduct free and fair elections in regions. “Najam Sethi came to temporarily head the interim management committee and only had one mandate to conduct elections in the cricket regions,” he said. Zaka’s return after a period of nine years ends — for now at least — a repeat of the tussles that had marked the tug of war between him and Sethi between 2013 and 2014. The pair were involved in a protracted legal battle for the Chairmanship at the time, with the position switching hands several times. That issue was seemingly settled when then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finally ousted Zaka and brought in Sethi.

Sethi has been running the PCB on an interim basis since former Pakistan Test captain Ramiz Raja was removed as Chairman, and the PCB’s 2019 constitution was scrapped last December. Sethi’s committee was initially given 120 days to bring back the 2014 constitution under which the PCB was run, and also reinstate the regional and department structure in domestic cricket. The committee was also given a mandate to form a BoG and elect a Chairman. That meant the dismissal of the six-team provincial model for domestic cricket which was formed with the backing of former premier Imran Khan. The domestic structure will now be based on 16 regions, marked by a return of departments. Among them, four regions and four departments are set to be given a board seat at the PCB for a term of three years.

The 2014 constitution also requires the PCB to form a BoG comprising ten members: four out of the 16 regional representatives, four representatives of services organisations, and two members directly nominated by the PCB Patron. Over the last six months, Sethi’s management committee has also overseen the hiring of a predominantly overseas coaching staff for Pakistan, with former head coach Mickey Arthur appointed part-time director of cricket. One of the thornier issues that occupied Sethi during his short stint was Pakistan’s hosting of the Asia Cup and its link to Pakistan’s potential participation in the World Cup, scheduled to be held in India in October-November this year. Three days back, Sethi was talking about Pakistan’s participation at the event being subject to the approval of the Pakistan government. That will be one of the more pressing issues for Sethi’s successor to deal with.