Zaka Ashraf Assumes Charge As Chair Of Pakistan Cricket Board Management Committee

Zaka Ashraf will be the chair of the Pakistan Cricket Board Management Committee for four months.

With Ashraf being the new chairman now, Pakistan’s participation in the Asia Cup again became a topic of debate.

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A new ten-member management committee, appointed by the Pakistan Government will be headed by Zaka Ashraf for the tenure of four months. The first meeting of the PCB management committee was supposed to take place at 9.30am at the National Cricket Academy, in Lahore on Thursday (July 6).

The Pakistan Cricket Board has ten members: consisting of four regional representatives, four service representatives and two members that are nominated by the Prime Minister. After the unceremonious departure of his predecessor Najam Sethi, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-backed Zaka Ashraf to took over as Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee on Thursday. The Management Committee consists of ten members, namely Kalim Ullah Khan, Ashafaq Akhtar, Mussadiq Islam, Azmat Parvez, Zaheer Abbas, Khurram Soomro, Khawaja Nadeem, Mustafa Ramday, and Zulfiqar Malik.

Meanwhile, Mahmood Iqbal has taken over as the board's head election commissioner, succeeding Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana.

Ashraf was the favourite pick to become the chairman. Initially the PCB elections for the next board Chairman were scheduled for June 27, but they were postponed indefinitely due to a number of writ petitions that were filed by the former management committee across various high courts challenging the structure of the governing board.

The government has replaced PCB election commissioner Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana with Supreme Court advocate Mahmood Iqbal Khakwani. As the election of the PCB's new chairman was also postponed on June 26 after the Baluchistan High Court accepted the plea of former PCB management committee member Gul Mohammad Kakar and scheduled a hearing on July 17.

Prior to withdrawing from the campaign, former chairman Najam Sethi established a 10-member board of governors, which included two direct nominees from PCB patron Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The board of governors was then replaced by acting chairman Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana, necessitating Kakar's legal action.

Men from Dera Murad Jamali, Hyderabad, Larkana, and Bahawalpur replaced representatives from major places like Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar.

With Ashraf being the new chairman now, Pakistan’s participation in the Asia Cup again became a topic of debate as Ashraf stated before that he rejects the ‘hybrid model.’

During a press conference he mentioned: "The first point is that I had rejected the hybrid model (for Asia Cup) in the past itself - because I do not agree with it. The board of the Asian Cricket Council had decided that it should be held in Pakistan, then we should host it."

The Asia Cup model has been recognised by the ACC, and no changes are planned. If Pakistan deviates from the agreed-upon decision of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), there may be no middle ground, perhaps resulting to the Asia Cup being contested as a five-nation competition without Pakistan's participation.

Ashraf's steadfast attitude on the Asia Cup, combined with Pakistan's requests for neutral venues for World Cup matches, is likely to strain relations with the BCCI and the International Cricket Council (ICC), as neither organisation is expected to accept Pakistan's demands. It is also worth noting that the last bilateral series that were held between India and Pakistan in 2012 were held under the chairmanship of Zaka Ashraf.