LAHORE: Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Shaharyar M. Khan is widely tipped to be elected as the next chairman of the board after patron Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif recommended his name along with that of previous PCB chairman Najam Sethi as members of the Governing Board here on Monday.

The patron has also named retired Justice Mohammad Sair Ali as the election commissioner and acting PCB chairman to conduct the election for the top slot within the next 30 days as per the new PCB constitution.

The ten-member PCB Governing Board comprising four regional representatives and as many members from departments will elect the new PCB chairman for which Shaharyar seems a strong candidate since Sethi has already declared before the Supreme Court that he will not be contesting the polls.

Shaharyar is also quite close to the prime minister and therefore no other member of the Governing Board is likely to file nomination papers to contest the election against him.

Justice Sair named interim PCB chief-cum-election commissioner

It may be mentioned here that Shaharyar had served as PCB chairman for three years (2003-2006) in the former president Pervez Mushar­raf’s regime. During Shaharyar’s tenure, Pakistan played bilateral series against India every year with Pakistan hosting India twice.

Now a big challenge awaits the PCB once again to revive international cricket in Pakistan as well as reviving cricketing ties with India after the bilateral series with the arch-rivals were suspended in the aftermath of November 2008 terroist attacks in Mumbai.

Though Pakistan did tour India to play the high-profile 2011 World Cup semi-final against the hosts in Mohali and again in 2012-13 for a short limited-overs series, full restoration of Indo-Pak cricket has not materialised due to political tensions between the two neighbouring countries.

It also remains to be seen whether Shaharyar endorses the various decisions taken by the recently-resigned PCB chairman Najam Sethi. Despite working on an ad hoc basis, Sethi appointed Moin Khan (chief selector-cum-team manager), Waqar Younis (head coach) and Basit Ali (chief of junior selection committee) besides hiring the services of Mushtaq Ahmed (spin bowling coach), former Zimbabwean Test cricketer Grant Flower (batting coach), South African Grant Luden (fielding coach) for a two-year period.

Sethi also announced a five-year domestic cricket plan and formed the bids committee to sell media rights for the upcoming series against New Zealand and Australia.

Shaharyar’s last tenure ended in controversial circumstances owing to successive incident that rocked Pakistan cricket.

The first incident involved in an ugly ball-tampering row at The Oval in 2006 which eventually led to forfeiture of Test, the only incident of its kind in the entire Test history.

Pakistan team then led by Inzamam-ul-Haq refused to continue with the Test at The Oval against England after Australian umpire Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove had imposed a penalty of five runs on Pakistan team for tampering with the ball.

Soon afterwards, Shaharyar faced another crisis when Younis Khan, then freshly installed to lead Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy in India in place of Inzamam, declined to captain the team just hours before the team’s departure to India.

Shaharyar hurriedly named Mohammad Yousuf as the new captain but was removed as PCB chief the very same day and replaced by Musharraf’s close aide Dr Nasim Ashraf.

With Sethi still part of the Governing Board, there are strong rumours that the next PCB chairman could well be a dummy. However, since Shaharyar holds strong credentials and direct link with the prime minister, critics say he is fully capable of taking independent decisions in running the PCB.

As for acting PCB chairman retired Justice Sair, it is pertinent to mention here that he was one of those judges who had refused to take oath under the PCO as justice of the Lahore High Court in the wake of Nov 3, 2007 emergency imposed in the country by Gen Pervez Mushrraf. He was later promoted to the Supreme Court after restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry as the chief justice of Pakistan.

Agencies add: Meanwhile, sources in the govt said that veteran cricket official Iqbal Umer, who was earlier nominated as the PM’s candidate for the PCB chairmanship last month, had substantial legal ground to challenge the fresh IPC order nominating Shaharyar Khan.

According to the sources, since Iqbal Umer along with former chairman Najam Sethi had been clearly named as the governing body members in the earlier order issued from the PM secretariat last month, it was unlawful to remove Iqbal’s name without any proper notification from either the IPC or the PCB.

Published in Dawn, Aug 5th, 2014