Zaka Ashraf appointed as chair of PCB management committee

The Pakistan government has appointed Zaka Ashraf as the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Notably, ever since Najam Sethi stepped down, Ashraf was the favourite to make his return as PCB head and on Thursday, July 6, Pakistan confirmed the new development. 

Notably, Ashraf will be heading a new ten-member management committee, which will take care of the business for the next four months as a brand new committee is expected to form after the end of the ODI World Cup.

Meanwhile, PCB had to postpone the election of Ashraf as chairman after a lot of former committee members registered complaints about the new committee in various courts across the country. Thus, it has been postponed indefinitely but it will not create a problem for Ashraf to make his return into PCB’s scheme of things.

After the election was postponed, Pakistan Cricket Board replaced former election commissioner Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana with Mahmood Iqbal Khakwani, who’s an advocate in the Supreme Court. As per reports from India Today, a hearing for the ongoing case is scheduled to take place on July 17. 

Currently, there are four regional representatives, four service representatives, and two members nominated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Generally, the prime minister’s appointment to the PCB Board of Governors goes up to lead Pakistan Cricket for the next three years and thus, Ashraf is expected to continue beyond the four-month period as a more concrete solution will be drawn after the election.

Notably, the new ten-member committee will confirm Pakistan’s stance on playing in the upcoming ODI World Cup. PCB previously stated that the team will not be travelling to India for the marquee tournament but later soften up a bit and stated that they will not play the India versus Pakistan game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

The cricket board is expected to confirm the same in August or September. So far, they have stated security reasons as a concern to playing in India and in Ahmedabad and a team from Pakistan is yet to come for inspection.