Multan Sultan become first franchise team to hire female General Manager

The Multan Sultan are on the verge of becoming the first franchise to hire a female general manager in the short history of T20 cricket. Journalist Hijab Zahid will be taking up the role, replacing Haider Azhar. Notably, she was working at the grassroots level and now is all set to earn a promotion to the top division.

Multan Sultans, who won the Pakistan Super League in 2021, will see a change in ownership in the upcoming edition as Alamgir Tareen passed away last month. Replacing him, his nephew, Ali Tareen, who was the co-owner of the franchise until 2021, will now take full control. 

Coming to Zahid, she is set to become the youngest general manager in the history of the competition. As per ESPNcricinfo, The 28-year-old has a master's degree in Project Management from the University of Hertfordshire and has previously served as media manager for Islamabad United.

Tareen is hence overwhelmed with Zahid’s incoming as he mentioned her to be the most qualified general manager among all the other teams. He lauded Hijab stating that she is extremely talented and he was absolutely sure about hiring her in the first place.

“The most qualified general manager among all PSL sides. Hijab was the first person that came to my mind. I knew she was much more capable than her current job demands of her, and I knew she was the first person I wanted to talk to,” Tareen mentioned.

Only needed to think about it for a minute: Zahid

Hijab Zahid mentioned that she was extremely confident after receiving the offer and understands the challenges she will have as a female in a men’s team. Hence, she expects to undergo a lot of workshops and conversations with players to explain the role she will have.

“I only needed to think about it for a minute. It's a lot harder to assert authority as a woman. It's culturally harder for men to take directions from a woman. We have people in this industry who haven't interacted with women in their lives through no fault of their own, especially in this power dynamic. So I expect we'll have a lot of conversations and workshops about having a woman in a management role here,” Zahid stated.