LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja is likely to resign from his position in the wake of Imran Khan’s ouster as prime minister, sources revealed.
Ramiz is presently in Dubai for the International Cricket Council (ICC) meetings which concluded on Sunday. According to media reports, Ramiz Raja had only agreed to become the chairman Imran Khan’s insistence. However, he had also made it clear to remain only until Imran Khan was prime minister.
Sources said that with Imran now ousted as PM, who is also Patron-in-Chief of the Board and directly nominates the chairman, it is highly unlikely Ramiz would stay on unless the new prime minister wants him to carry on with his job.
According to sources, former PCB chairman Najam Sethi is likely to replace Ramiz Raja as the the confidence motion had already caused a stir in the the PCB. Najam Sethi has close ties with the opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif who is expected to be the next prime minister
Sethi first served as chairman in 2013 but fought a legal battle with Zaka Ashraf. He returned to charge in 2014 but Shahryar Khan was named chairman and Sethi was given the charge of the powerful executive committee. In August 2017, he was re-appointed chairman but stepped down a year later after Imran Khan took charge as prime minister.
Since Ramiz took over as PCB chairman last September he has made several changes in the Board and also followed up on Imran’s insistence on a domestic cricket structure based on just six first class provincial teams.
Soon after taking charge, Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis were shown the door as head coach and bowling coach of the national team. He also asked the head of the high performance centre in Lahore, Grant Bradburn, and some other coaches to resign. His biggest move was to create circumstances where Wasim Khan stepped down as CEO of the Board.
Since then, Ramiz brought in a new CEO but with Imran’s government now gone, it remains to be seen what will happen to the new appointments in the Board as political changes also have a huge impact on Pakistan cricket setup.
