LAHORE: Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Najam Sethi has been appointed as the Chairman of PCB’s Management Committee following the approval of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
According to the details, the newly-constituted management committee will run the affairs of the PCB till the elections are held within the next four months.
The committee led by Sethi includes Shakil Sheikh (ex-PCB BoG), Gul Zada (ex-PCB BoG) Nauman Butt (ex-PCB BoG), ex-Test cricketers Haroon Rashid, Shahid Khan Afridi and Shafqat Rana, Sana Mir (ex-Pakistan women team’s captain), Aized Syed (ex-PCB director NHPC), Tanvir Ahmed (ex-president Larkana Region), Advocate Supreme Court Mustafa Ramday and Chaudhry Arif Saeed (CEO Service Industries).
“The federal government is pleased to constitute a management committee to manage the affairs of PCB with full executive powers with the aim of effecting the restoration of departmental cricket structure and other allied matters, including the nomination of Board of Governors and election of chairman, as stipulated in the 2014 Constitution, within a frame of 120 days,” the notification issued by Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination stated.
In another notification, the federal cabinet also approved repealing of PCB Constitution 2019 and revival of the PCB Constitution 2014 through a circulation summary. The cabinet did approval through a circulation summary.
Cabinet Approval pic.twitter.com/M59WJCh64J
— Najam Sethi (@najamsethi) December 21, 2022
Notably, the Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) the other day had moved a summary to include two new PCB BoG members — Sethi and Shakil — in place of incumbent PCB chairman Ramiz Raja and another member Asad Ali Khan.
Meanwhile, Sethi, soon after he was appointed the chairman of the management committee, held a press conference at the PCB headquarters here and said that Peshawar will host international cricket like other cities, ARY News reported.
Mr Najam Sethi speaking with the local media shortly after assuming charge as Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Management Committee. pic.twitter.com/Q1E5AliIuy
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 22, 2022
“Peshawar is not a red flag at all. If we can bring cricket to Karachi, so why can’t we bring it to Peshawar”? he said while responding to a question.
Meanwhile, Sethi also thanked PM Shehbaz for trusting the former and set his sights on revamping domestic cricket and the revival of departmental cricket.
“I am grateful to the Prime Minister for trusting me. It was his desire to restore the 2014 constitution,” said Sethi.
“The committee has been formed and we will soon start working at the ground level in four months. The first meeting of our committee is going to be held soon and we will analyse the changes needed.
“We will restore regional and departmental cricket in the domestic cricket and it is our supreme priority to fix our domestic cricket structure.”
Sethi further opined on ongoing New Zealand’s historic tour of Pakistan and indicated to consider making changes in the national team’s Test squad, announced on Wednesday.
“New Zealand tour of Pakistan is very important for us. We will go to Karachi and analyse the situation there. We will also consider making changes to the team announced for the series,” said Sethi.
It is worth mentioning here that Ramiz Raja was appointed as PCB chairman by the former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan on September 13, 2021.
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