Raja toppled

Najam Sethi is reinstated as PCB Boss by PM Shehbaz

Almost nine months after Imran Khan’s ouster as the Prime Minister of Pakistan through a vote of no confidence, the new Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Patron-in-Chief, Shehbaz Sharif, removed Ramiz Raja from the chairmanship of the cricket governing body.

Najam Sethi, who was first appointed as PCB chairman in 2013 by Nawaz Sharif and served multiple brief terms as the boss till 2018, has been once again given the reins of the cricket board.

In 2018, when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf came into power, Sethi opted to resign from the post, given his political differences with Khan. In a matter of hours, Ehsan Mani was named as his successor.

When governments change in Pakistan, the changes in the cricket board become almost certain. When Shehbaz replaced Khan earlier this year as the prime minister, it was expected that Raja would be thrown out immediately; however, he lasted for good nine months to everyone’s surprise.

As per the notification, a 14-member management committee, headed by Sethi, will take interim charge of the board for 120 days, mainly to reinstate the PCB’s 2014 version of the Constitution and repeal the one introduced in 2019. The committee had respectable names like men’s and women’s former captains Shahid Afridi and Sana Mir, who chose to withdraw from it.

Sethi announced his reinstatement as the PCB chairman via a tweet, mentioning that Raja’s regime was over.

“The cricket regime headed by Ramiz Raja is no more,” Sethi tweeted late on Wednesday. “The 2014 PCB constitution stands restored. The Management Committee will work tirelessly to revive first class cricket. Thousands of cricketers will be employed again. The famine in cricket will come to an end.”

The notification came days after Pakistan suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat in a Test series at home against England under the captaincy of Babar Azam and the coaching of Saqlain Mushtaq, respectively. For the first time in the history of Pakistan cricket, the side have lost four home Tests in a row, three against the English team and one against Australia.

Earlier, when Australia toured the country, the PCB Boss was heavily criticised for saying that the wicket was flattened in Rawalpindi to neutralise the Australian bowling attack.

Meanwhile, this time, when Rawalpindi again produced a road-like pitch for the England Test, he called it embarrassing.

Previously, during the historic Australian tour, there were allegations against the former opening batter for restricting the commentators to comment on the lifelessness of the wicket.

Moreover, the former PCB boss had recently come under fire when in an interview with Sky Sports, he stated that they could not hold international matches in Peshawar.

“We can’t bring Western teams in Peshawar right now. But, we can assure you that soon Peshawar will get to host some PSL matches,” the chairman shared. “Foreign players are not allowed to travel to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan by their countries. They are asked to stay cautious.”

In response to these comments, Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Peshawar Zalmi’s owner Javed Afridi did not attend the recently held drafts for the tournament to register a protest and vowed to take international cricketers to the city.

“Being a son of this soil, I promise the people of Peshawar and KP [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] that we will bring all our foreign players to play in Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium,” tweeted Afridi.

Raja’s position had been under scrutiny for days now, and his departure looked inevitable due to being an alleged one-man show and, of course, an appointment of the former premier of the country Imran Khan.

Now that Raja has been dethroned, what is expected from the new regime under Sethi?

Revival of domestic cricket

The new PCB chairman has been given the task to restore the 2014 Constitution, and as a part of it, he is adamant about reviving departmental cricket.

On the instructions of the then patron-in-chief Khan, former head of the cricket governing body Ehsan Mani had abolished departmental cricket in 2019 and reduced the domestic circuit to six regional teams, a decision that had received severe backlash.

“We will try to make all the changes in the next three, four months for reviving departmental cricket and to fully restore the Constitution of 2014,” he asserted on his first visit to the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, the PCB’s headquarter, after four years and four months. “A Board [Board of Governors] having four departmental and as many regional representatives will be formed according to the PCB Constitution of 2014.

“The main agenda is also to improve domestic cricket through reforms to bring it at par with international level as we made the PSL an international brand.”

He implied that PSL has become the platform from where the majority of new players are launched, arguing that domestic cricket should be competitive enough to produce world-class talent.

However, as they say, it is easier said than done. Keeping the current economic situation of the country in view, it will not be as simple for Sethi as he probably thinks to restore departments.

It is pertinent to mention that numerous departments, including United Bank Limited, had closed their sporting operations down even before the PCB replaced them with the regional teams. Now, the situation has worsened, and in the current economic climate, departments might not be tempted to hire whole squads of cricketers.

Convincing the private and government sectors to restart their teams will be a task for Sethi & Co. on its own.

Lenient stance against India

Raja had a firm stance regarding the revival of international cricket in the country, which was initiated by Sethi under his regime.

The member of the World Cup-winning squad was quite vocal as the head of PCB when New Zealand and England withdrew from their respective tours to Pakistan in 2021.

He spoke his heart about it and made the world realise that Pakistan is an integral part of international cricket and no country can avoid touring it.

During his tenure as the PCB boss, England and Australia toured the country, while Pakistan was awarded the hosting rights of Asia Cup 2023.

However, recently, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah, also the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President, maintained that their team would not travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup and the tournament would be shifted to a neutral venue.

Raja responded strongly to the statement and maintained that if India don’t visit Pakistan for the tournament, they will boycott World Cup 2023, which is scheduled to take place in the neighbouring country. He further stated that if Asia Cup is moved anywhere from Pakistan, they would not be a part of the event and would also leave ACC.

Moreover, the Pakistan blind cricket team were denied visas by the Indian authorities for the Blind T20 World Cup, which took place in India from December 5 to 17.

However, as Sethi took the charge, he has already maintained a much lenient position on the whole issue, saying he will consult the government before making any call.

On a question regarding the matter, he maintained that it was too early for him to comment on strategic issues regarding India, adding that he would seek guidance from the government on it.

Wasim sacked

Pakistan Chief Selector Muhammad Wasim has already been sacked and all committees formed under the now-defunct 2019 constitution have been disbanded.

“We are going to disband all committees today because they were constituted under the 2019 Constitution that has been revoked and shall reconstitute them under the new SRO,” Sethi told ESPNcricinfo.

There were some speculations that a panel comprising Shahid Afridi Shoaib Akhtar and Inzamam ul Haq will replace him.

Wasim’s departure was on the cards, obviously due to the Men-in-Green’s inability to win Test matches in their home ground recently, and also because he was considered someone backed by Raja.

Wasim, a former Pakistan batter, was appointed as chief selector in December 2020 and expected to hold the post till the 2023 ODI World Cup.

On Friday, he was communicated about his sacking via an email, only a few days after he picked the Test squad for the New Zealand series.

During his tenure, Pakistan played 16 Tests, winning eight and losing six, though the four losses at home marred his tenure.

In white-ball cricket though, there was much to celebrate. Pakistan made it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2021 and the final in the 2022 edition.

Overall, in 55 T20Is, Pakistan won 34 and lost 18, while in 15 ODIs, Pakistan won ten and lost five.