LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) welcomed its third chief in the past six and a half months on Thursday when Zaka Ashraf took charge of the Interim Management Committee (IMC).

On Dec 20 last year, Ramiz Raja was the chairman. He was removed by Prime Minister and PCB patron Shehbaz Sharif, who named an 11-member IMC headed by Najam Sethi, which worked till June 20. And now, another IMC, a 10-member body, was formed on Wednesday with Zaka as its chairman.

Zaka’s arrival as chief however ended the uncertainty which had gripped the PCB during the past fortnight.

Besides staging the Asia Cup jointly with Sri Lanka in September this year, the PCB also has to deal with the issues concerning the forthcoming ICC annual meeting starting in South Africa on July 9 and Pakistan team’s participation in the 50-over ICC World Cup being held in India during October-November.

There was no PCB chairman after the six-month tenure of Sethi as the IMC head ended on June 20.

After Sethi’s IMC completed its tenure, the elections of PCB chairman were due to be held on June 27 for which Zaka and Mustafa Ramday were nominated by the PM in the Board of Governors.

However just two days before the elections, petitions were filed in different courts which gave stay order against the elections and as a result uncertainty started.

Though the cases in some courts are still pending, the PM ended the uncertainty by naming another IMC for four months to be headed by Zaka, a strong contender to become the chairman in the now-postponed June 27 elections.

Though the announcement of the new IMC was made late on Wednesday, Zaka, who ran the PCB as chairman from 2011-13 also, arrived at the PCB headquarters at the Gaddafi Stadium in the wee hours of Thursday.

Later, the PCB in a press statement said that Zaka would go to South Africa along with chief operating officer Salman Naseer and head of special projects Faisal Husnain to attend the ICC meeting.

A couple of days ago also, Zaka’s name had been announced to attend the said ICC meeting, but it was withdrawn after a few minutes with reports saying his name was announced without his consent for the said meeting.

Meanwhile, Zaka emphasised a concerted approach to lift Pakistan cricket.

“I desire there should be no differences and all should work together for the promotion of cricket. I wanted to say goodbye to Najam Sethi respectfully and this message was also sent to Sethi that we want to give him a farewell like I did when I took the charge from Ijaz Butt [in his previous tenure],” a PCB press release quoted Zaka as saying.

“There is a need to bring big improvement in the affairs related to the hosting of the Asia Cup and participation in the World Cup and there are a number of international challenges to be faced.”

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It may be mentioned here that Sethi had introduced a ‘hybrid model’ to host India’s Asia Cup matches at a neutral venue as the Indian government did not allow its team to tour Pakistan due to strained political relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

However, due to BCCI’s domineering approach in international cricket, Sethi could get only four Asia Cup matches to be held in Pakistan while the rest of the games went to Sri Lanka. Zaka had rejected the ‘hybrid model’.

Zaka also hinted at holding elections in districts and regions, which had been completed in 90 per cent areas of the country.

“The elections at district and regional level will be held again in the backdrop of the complaints if received against the previous elections, both at district and regional level,” the press release quoted him as saying.

It is learnt that office-bearers in most of the districts and regions were elected unopposed which raises concerns over rigging.

The chairman also instructed the COO to send all the documents to the Inter-provincial Coordination Committee, which it sought for the audit of the PCB.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2023