LAHORE: Ramiz Raja’s future as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is uncertain after Imran Khan was out of power through a vote of a no-confidence motion, becoming the first prime minister in the country’s history to be unseated by a parliamentary revolt.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan is also the PCB’s Patron-in-Chief. Sources have revealed that Najam Sethi will become the next cricket board chairman while it is likely that the current head Ramiz Raja will resign by himself very soon.
Najam Sethi has close ties with the Opposition Leader in National Assembly and potential new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He is keen on returning to the cricket board and preliminary talks have already been started.
Najam first served as chairman in 2013 but had to fight a legal battle with Chaudhry Muhammad 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 of the board but a year later, he stepped down after Imran Khan took charge as Prime Minister and announced his successor, former ICC President Ehsan Mani, as the new head of the cricket board.
On the other hand, the possibility of the return of the old domestic system under the new government is also bright. In the system created at the behest of Imran Khan, the departments were abolished and domestic cricket was limited to six associations, which left thousands of cricketers unemployed.
Many players and officials have been forced to drive away from the game and look to do other work. Major changes are expected in Pakistan cricket over the next month.
Ramiz Raja and PCB CEO, Faisal Hasnain, are currently in Dubai for an important ICC Board meeting where they were set to propose the highly anticipated 4-nation Super Series involving India, Australia, and England on an annual basis with revenues to be shared by the involved boards.
