KARACHI: A former member of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi’s cabinet — when the media mogul was caretaker chief minister of Punjab — will carry out the role of a data analyst in the national selection committee.

Bilal Afzal, an electrical engineer and an MBA graduate by qualification, has found himself among Pakistan’s former Test cricketers Asad Shafiq, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq, and will make decisions over the national side’s selection matters.

Pakistan’s next captain and the teams new head coach — both yet to be appointed — will be Bilal’s colleagues on the committee as well.

According to a PCB official close to the situation, Bilal is a “data-driven professional”.

“We never followed any procedure to appoint anyone as selector,” the official said. “It is the chairman’s right to appoint anyone.”

Bilal is not “anyone”. The former caretaker minister of Punjab for three portfolios — environment protection, forest wildlife and fisheries and planning and development — is the son of another ex-caretaker minister Sohail Afzal, a close friend of influential businessman and politician Mian Amer Mahmood.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Bilal is a group director of the Punjab Group, a well-known venture of Amer. Bilal, however, hasn’t ever been involved with cricket, at least at the top level.

On the selection committee as a data analyst, he will be assisted by Hassan Cheema, who has been appointed as an ex-officio member on the basis of his team strategy and data analysis experience with Pakistan Super League franchise Islamabad United.

Hassan was also part of the selection committee during Najam Sethi’s reign as the PCB’s interim Management Committee chief under chief selector Haroon Rasheed.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2024