Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Najam Sethi, who replaced Ramiz Raja as PCB chief last year on interim basis, stunned everyone by announcing his withdrwal from the race of becoming the next Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman. Sethi posted a Tweet in the early hours of Tuesday morning to announce the same. He was heading an interim management committee that had been running PCB since December last year, the tenure of which will come to an end on June 21st. It was expected that Sethi would be given full responsibility after this, but in the last few weeks, speculations were being made by Pakistani media about a possible return of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) president Zaka Ashraf as the chairman of the board. Nothing has been made official yet, but it is clear from Najam Sethi's tweet that he will no longer continue in the post.
"Salaam everyone! I don't want to be a bone of contention between Asif Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif. Such instability and uncertainty is not good for PCB. Under the circumstances I am not a candidate for chairmanship of PCB. Good luck to all stakeholders," Sethi wrote on Twitter.
The development could have implications on the upcoming Asia Cup and the ICC World Cup.
Ashraf had previously served as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman during the time when PPP government was in power in Pakistan, and according to several reports in the local media, the party's senior leadership is keen to have its candidate lead the PCB once again.