Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani on Wednesday once again reiterated his support for Sarfraz Ahmed by indicating that the wicket-keeper batsman will remain Pakistan’s captain till the 2019 World Cup. Speaking to media here, the PCB chairman said there was no controversy regarding captaincy and whatever was there, it was just created by the media. “He is captain of Pakistan. He has no restriction and no terms. He is a great choice and this controversy around Sarfraz’s captaincy is created by the press,” he said. When asked if Sarfraz would remain captain till World Cup 2019, the chairman responded, “Yes, Insha Allah.”

To a question, he said although there were clear indications from Indian cricket administrators that they wanted to play with Pakistan, he was not expecting any progress in this regard before the next elections in India. The chairman rued that politics was always mixed whenever it was about India playing Pakistan and that was why any development can only be seen after the elections across the border. “We are in talks with India. There are elections coming in India next year and things will be cleared only after that. I can’t expect any progress before that,” Mani said. He further clarified that any bilateral cricket terms with India would purely be on the basis of equality and Pakistan won’t beg them for the bilateral series. “We want terms with India on equal basis but we won’t be begging them,” he said.
“We are in talks with Indian authorities but the BCCI is also without a proper structure and it is run by a committee of administrators. But, I can’t tell you that Indian cricket administrators have clearly signaled that they want to play.”

Replying to a question, the PCB chairman stated that everyone in the PCB was accountable and answerable. “Even I am accountable in the PCB. There’s no one in the PCB who is not accountable. We will make everything transparent and there will be nothing to hide. I will publish my expenses every quarter. I am answerable to every stakeholder.” Mani said there was a need to have an empowered chief executive in the PCB because the job of the chairman was totally different from the job of chief executive and one person can’t do both the jobs. “Which other chairman in the world has the powers of chief executive as well? We will have a separate chief executive. Chairman and CEO have different roles. One has to prepare the policy and other is responsible to implement the policy,” he said.

The PCB chairman confirmed that he has been reached by Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises over financial matters, requesting to peg value of dollar to a certain amount but added that any solution of this matter would be decided only after consultation with relevant authorities. Mani revealed that there were already five to six interested parties who had expressed interest in buying the sixth team in the PSL after termination of contract with Multan Sultans. Replying to a question, he said the board would have a domestic structure according to culture of Pakistan cricket and interest of every stakeholder, including departments, will be protected.

Published in Daily Times, November 15^th 2018.