PCB Chairman should not be appointed by the PM, says Mudassar Nazar

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Pakistan is undergoing a pivotal moment as Prime Minister Imran Khan faces an uphill battle against the opposition and outside power to secure his position as the leader of the country.

In an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan, former Pakistan Test cricketer Mudassar Nazar said that the political battle will have direct implications on cricket of Pakistan.

Mudassar Nazar is currently working alongside the Emirates Cricket Board as Director of National Cricket Academy on a three-year contract with one year option.

“The way our cricket structure is, our method of appointing the PCB Chairman is wrong. The Prime Minister elects the chairman and previously, it used to be the President of Pakistan,” Mudassar stated.

He further explained the reason why country’s rulers used to appoint the chairman because cricket needed money and this was the simplest way to do so.

“After Pakistan’s independence, the cricket in the country required money to operate. The money was raised by acquiring funds from big named companies and through the officials. This is why the President intervened and started appointing the chairman of PCB. However, the times have changed but our ways have not,” added Nazar.

“Our association has been active and elections should have been held to make a PCB chairman from within the association. PCB makes its own money now, through ICC and other means; this is the biggest change but our methods are still the same,” he further explained.

With the no-confidence vote looming large, there are concerns that PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja is likely to be replaced if the sitting Prime Minister Imran Khan loses the vote.

Imran Khan’s first major decision was to replace the Pakistan cricket’s domestic structure, which was met by a lot of resistance but the decision was carried out by PCB’s chairman at that time – Ehsan Mani.

Mudassar Nazar believes that even if the chairman is replaced, the previous domestic system should return due to Ehsan Mani’s poor execution of Imran Khan’s vision.

“The first and foremost thing which was promised was that all the jobs of the players and coaches will be secured but that did not happen and Ehsan Mani had no answers for it,” Mudassar explained.

“Ehsan Mani could not carry out Imran’s vision because he never said that you close down all the grounds, cancel all the tournaments; the currently implemented version is a variation of Imran’s vision and it is not something stable,” he added.

While speaking about revival of the old departmental cricket model, Nazar said it will not be easy to make it happen because of Covid-19 and now the Ukraine-Russia war.

“Sponsorship for Pakistan’s national team often proves to be a struggle. Majority of the money comes through ICC. When your international team cannot find sponsors then finding them for association teams is an extremely difficult task,” he further explained.

“Although there are 3-4 organisations which have always been interested in supporting cricket in Pakistan but to find 15-16 teams will take a lot of time; there is a lot of damage that has been done because of this shift in domestic system, which was not implemented properly,” Mudassar concluded.