LAHORE: While the tenure of Pakistan Cricket Board’s Interim Management Committee stood expired on Friday, no decision was taken by the board’s patron-in-chief Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by the filing of this report to provide clarity about the Committee’s future.

There was lack of response from the premier’s office in spite of it receiving two summaries from the Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination; the first requesting the patron to appoint two nominees to run for the elections of PCB chairman post and the other seeking a two-four week extension in the Committee’s tenure.

The Najam Sethi-led Interim Management Committee was formed in December last year following instructions from the prime minister’s office, which saw former PCB chairman Ramiz Raja ousted and the board’s 2019 constitution revoked and replaced by the 2014 charter.

The PM Office back then had defined a four-month tenure for the Management Committee, two months less than what the current constitution requires in case of dissolution of the body’s Board of Governors.

The confusion over Sethi and his Management Committee’s legality, however, is unlikely to prolong and it’s likely to be granted its due extension of two months required to complete the elections at the district level and in the remaining seven out of a total of 16 regions.

Dawn understands that the Board of Governors will be constituted within the next two weeks with a good number of departments committed to form their teams according to the 2014 constitution — in which departments and regions form domestic cricket structure.

Once the Board of Governors is complete, four elected presidents of the regions and as many departments affiliated with the PCB cast their votes to elect PCB chairman

“It is not a big issue even if the prime minister announces his two nominees for the Board of Governors as it will be formed most probably by the first week of May,” a source close to the situation told Dawn on Friday.

“Some forty-three small and big departments have already restored their [cricket] teams and there is no big issue remaining in completing the Board of Governors in the next two weeks,” he added.

During Imran Khan’s reign as the prime minister from 2018 to 2022, the PCB adopted the 2019 constitution, which saw departments and regions replaced by six provincial association sides. Imran had also instructed departments to close down their sport wings, which led to many athletes lose their jobs.

Since Shehbaz took office after Imran’s ouster through a no-confidence vote in April last year, the incumbent PM revoked his predecessor’s move to restore departments in sports and eventually instructed the restoration of PCB’s 2014 constitution.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023