Najam Sethi aims to make domestic cricket stronger like PSL

Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management committee, Najam Sethi, stated that the governing body's primary objective is to restructure domestic cricket and make it a major brand like the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appointed Sethi as chairman of cricket's governing body, replacing Ramiz Raja.

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The government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), appointed a 14-member committee headed by Sethi to supervise PCB operations for 120 days before the 2014 constitution's election period.

During the press conference, the former PCB chairman said: "In the next 3-4 months, we will make the necessary changes to revive departmental and regional cricket. The board will be made of elected representatives from four departments and each number of regions, alongside two nominees from the prime minister. There will then be elections, and the board will function as it used to. This is our agenda, which is for domestic cricket reform."

Making Pakistan's domestic cricket is a significant challenge, said Sethi.

"We need to fix our domestic cricket structure. In the last four years, there's been a famine. How many new players have domestic cricket provided to the national team in the last four years? It looks like the PSL is supplying cricketers because very few are coming through from domestic cricket, and even if they do, they don't get enough chances. This is a big challenge for us. Just as we made PSL a big international brand, we also need to make domestic cricket stronger," he said.

He stated that the committee hopes for a positive atmosphere for New Zealand's upcoming Test series tour.

"I want to say that a cricket team has been announced for the series. I don't know whether it's appropriate or not to make changes. We will discuss and see; we haven't decided yet," he added.

Pakistan will play New Zealand in the opening Test match on December 26 at the National Bank Cricket Arena.

The second Test between the two teams will be held from January 3 to 7 at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

After the conclusion of the Test series, the Black Caps will play three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) in Karachi from January 10 to 14.