LAHORE - The members of Board of Governors (BoG) unanimously put faith in Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman in its 27th meeting held under the chairmanship of the board chief here at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Saturday.
The PCB spokesman said that M Rafiq Bughio, Masood Anwar, M Haroon Rasheed, Commodore (r) Mirza Arshad Hussain, Dr Jawad Sajid Khan, Imtiaz Ahmad, Wajahat Ullah Wasti, PCB women wing chairperson Mrs Bushra Aitezaz, PCB Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmad and secretary to the board Bar Salman Naseer attended the meeting while Imtiaz Siddiqui and Barrister Shehryar Kasuri were especially invited to attend the meeting.
He said that BoG members unanimously expressed confidence in the assumption of office by Zaka Ashraf as PCB chairman and appreciated the honorable division bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the fair verdict and thanked the board patron for his support and guidance in bringing stability to the cricket board.
“The board also appreciated the determination of the chairman to regulate and rehash the affairs of the PCB both at the administrative and management level to the best of his abilities in consonance with the objective of the board,” he added.
“The BOG members further constituted a committee of the BoG members namely Cdre Mirza Arshad, Rafiq Bughio, Masood Anwar and PCB COO to review the list of decisions taken in the interregnum period during which the BoG could not assemble due to the aforesaid litigation with a view to regularize the same in the next BoG meeting,” he asserted.
“In addition, the BoG discussed routine matters relating to the affairs of PCB and expressed their confidence that the board chairman will ensure proper representation in the upcoming meeting of the ICC. The members discussed a media story regarding future ICC revenues and the proposed changes to the structure of the ICC management and agreed that the chairman should meet and apprise Prime Minister Mian M Nawaz Sharif, PCB patron, and seek his support and guidance in these important matters of national interest,” he concluded.
It is worth mentioning that BoG members Shakeel Shaikh, Iqbal Qasim and Ameen Siddiqui did not attended the meeting. When the PCB spokesman was asked about their absence, he said that due to some personal reasons, they were unable to reach the NCA to attend the meeting. Meanwhile, an inside sources disclosed that Shakeel Shaikh, having close (personal and professional) relation with ex-Interim Committee Chairman (IMC) Najam Sethi, deliberately missed the meeting as he was fully supporting him. When contacted for his point of view in this regard, Shakeel said: “I was not feeling well and suffering from fever and flu, therefore, I did not attend the BoG meeting.”
Meanwhile, the inside sources disclosed that the PCB chairman had taken major decision during the BoG as he appointed M Ilyas as chief selector and Basit Ali as new batting coach.
“Former cricketer Basit has been appointed as new batting coach before the commencement of the Asia Cup while Ilyas has been given task of the chief selector,” the sources added.
The sources further disclosed that the board had also decided to remove Moin Khan as manager of the national team while former opening batsman Aamir Sohail had been given important post in the board.