Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif grants two months extension to PCB interim management committee

Najam Sethi. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has granted an extension of two months to the interim management committee currently running the Pakistan Cricket Board. The length of the extension given by the patron of the board is longer than what was expected.

According to reports, an extension between two to four weeks was recommended for the current management committee by the Inter-provincial coordination (IPC) ministry, which transfers information between the board and the Pakistan government. The ministry had also asked the Prime Minister to name two nominees to the PCB board for the position of chairman.

According to ESPNCricinfo, there was no word on the nominees in the notification issued by the IPC’s office. The extension granted by the PM has given the Najam Sethi-led PCB set-up time till June 21, 2023, to execute the changes they had planned to make when they took over from the Ramiz Raja-led board in December 2022.

Leading a 14-member management committee, Sethi came in with instructions to replace the board’s 2019 constitution and bring back the one from 2014. The old constitution will bring the return of the regional and services department set-up in domestic cricket which will completely overhaul Pakistan‘s domestic cricket structure.

Over the last three seasons, the domestic structure was operating on a leaner six-team model of provincial teams based on the Australian Shield structure, as per the orders of the then Prime Minister -Imran Khan.

Management committee to also form a board of governors

Apart from that, the management committee is also expected to form a board of governors and elect a chairman, with Sethi himself in the run, according to the 2014 constitution. That process will begin with the election commissioner calling a special meeting with member boards.

As per the 2014 constitution, PCB’s board will consist of ten members: four regional representatives (top-four teams from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy), four representatives of services organizations (top-four department teams), and the two members nominated by the patron/Prime Minister. The federal secretary of the IPC ministry (or any other officer nominated by them) shall be an ex-officio, non-voting 11th member. The term of each member of the board of governors is three years – equivalent to one term of the chairman – in a bid to promote continuity in the set-up.