LAHORE: Big challenges are ahead for Ehsan Mani, who has been nominated by Prime Minister Imran Khan hours after Najam Sethi quit the post of PCB chairman.

There is no big hurdle visible for Mani as the process of election will start soon after Prime Minister makes a second nominee in place of Arif Ijaz, who like Sethi was also nominated by the previous Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the PCB Board of Governors. Arif has also quit his BoG member post.

The remaining members of the BoG, which is the electoral college of electing the chairman will remain as same.

The challenges ahead of Mani are tough in nature and among it, the most difficult is related to the fourth edition of the Pakistan Super League. As the broadcasting and production rights, title sponsorship, in-stadia advertisements and other contracts have to be renewed for the next edition, a new-look team may face problems to complete the work, which should be completed by end of November.

The second challenge is also to hold all PSL matches in Pakistan, according to vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Though Sethi had announced that around eight to 12 matches of the fourth PSL could be held in Pakistan, Imran now is keen on staging the entire PSL in the country. But with a majority of foreign players still unwilling to travel to Pakistan on security grounds, it remains a huge task to convince them.

Certainly, B or C class players are ready to visit Pakistan. When he was in the opposition, Imran had called these cricketers as ‘patheecher’ when a few of them played the 2107 PSL final in Lahore and then showed up for the two playoffs in Lahore and the final in Karachi during the third episode.

So it would take a lot of convincing from Mani to ensure top players compete in Pakistan.

The next challenge for Mani is how to safeguard neutral venues of UAE for Pakistan’s international fixtures since other countries are also due to hold their matches in the Emirates. Afghanistan are going to hold their T20 league there this year, while another private group is all set to hold T10 tournament besides a T20 league.

Moreover, India are all set to hold some Indian Premier League matches in the UAE next year. The UAE is also the venue of next month’s Asia Cup, while Pakistan would be hosting New Zealand and Australia there this year.

Staging bilateral series in the UAE since 2010 has definitely hit PCB’s financial interests.

Another challenge for Mani is to restore Indo-Pak bilateral series which remains suspended since 2007. In fact, the restoration of Indo-Pak cricket could solve many other problems of the PCB since once India visit Pakistan, others like England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand may also resume visiting Pakistan.

Mani’s also has to deal with PCB’s case in the ICC against BCCI for not honouring the MoU signed between them in 2014 in relation to restoring bilateral series with the PCB claiming $69 million as damages from their Indian counterparts. The formal proceedings of the case are to start in the last week of September. More interestingly, Sethi and COO Subhan Ahmad are to appear in this case as witnesses. There are reports that India’s witness Sriniva­san, who was then the BCCI president when the MoU was signed had refused to be a BCCI witness.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2018