Najam Sethi’s chances of taking over as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board have been strengthened after he was named as one of two direct nominees on the PCB’s Board of Governors (BoG). Sethi and Arif Ejaz, a prominent corporate figure, were nominated by the patron of the PCB, the current Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif.
The three-year tenure of the current BoG, the body that essentially drives the PCB, ends in August. Under the constitution of the board a fresh election will be carried out for a new chairman by the new BoG, which will sit till August 2020.
The development also confirms that the current board chairman Shaharyar Khan, 83, will be stepping down. Khan had tendered his resignation earlier this year. Ejaz will be his replacement on the BoG. Sethi’s reappointment is a signal of continuity and means, effectively, that his term has been extended for another three years: he is already on the BoG, holds a powerful role as head of three-man executive committee (ExCo) and is one of the driving forces behind the Pakistan Super League.
The composition of the BoG was reworked in 2014, reducing the members from 14 to 10. The body is made up of four representatives of regional associations (chosen from the top four regional teams from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy), four representatives of services organisations (from the top four department sides) and the two representatives directly appointed by the patron. An official from an inter-provincial coordination government body acts as an ex officio, non-voting 11th member. The term of each member of the BoG is three years – equivalent to one term of the chairman in a bid to induce continuity in the set-up.
