For the first time in its history, the PCB will have a female director on the board, with human resources executive Alia Zafar being appointed to the position. Last year the PCB rewrote its constitution, revoking the membership of the Board of Governors (BoG), and reducing the numerical strength of cricket-playing associations from eight to three in an attempt to compensate for their influence. It planned to bring in four independent directors in the process to live up to the practices of corporate governance.
Prior to the constitutional revision, the composition of the BoG consisted of four regional representatives (the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy’s top four regional teams) and four service organization representatives (the top four departmental teams) and two direct nominees from Pakistan’s Prime Minister, the Patron in Chief. Now the boss will have two direct nominees for an 11-member board, a move that sees power consolidated at the top and stripped from the teams playing domestic competitions. Every three years, three members of cricket associations will be elected presidents on a rotational basis, while the nomination committee will appoint four independent directors, at least one of whom must be female.
The PCB had functioned on the basis of the old formation until today, but after the appointment of the four independent members, all previous members were discharged from the Board. According to the PCB, the remaining three members-the heads of three associations-will be appointed after the completion of the election process.
In addition to Zafar, Javed Kurieshi, a finance executive, Asim Wajid Jawad, an economics specialist, and Arif Saeed, an economist and corporate executive, are the three independent members. Kurieshi and Saeed have been appointed for three years, while Alia and Wajid have been retained for two years.
Currently, only six provinces are eligible to play first-class cricket: Balochistan, Central Punjab, South Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and the North. Out of six, three on a rotation basis will have their heads on the PCB Board. Domestic cricket has been played between departments and regions in Pakistan for almost 50 years, starting in the early 1970s, with the departments historically having great influence through the Board of Governors on Pakistan cricket.
However, the new constitution still enables departments to maintain a foothold as sponsors of the domestic sides in cricket. Each of the six cricket associations’ territorial regions shall be based on the bifurcation of each province in the country and shall be financed by the PCB with the aid of a principal sponsor approved for an initial period of up to five years. According to the new constitution, the departments, which had previously maintained cricket teams, “be allowed first right of refusal to be the principle [principal] sponsor of the cricket association and the city cricket association”
According to PCB Chairman, Ehsan Mani, “Following promulgation of the new PCB Constitution in 2019, these distinguished members, on my request, had agreed to continue through the transitional period and provide the PCB management appropriate guidance through their knowledge and insight. The fact that these BoG members unanimously approved the appointment of the independent members, which now changes the outlook and composition of the BoG, illustrates their respect for the PCB Constitution 2019 and Pakistan cricket at heart.”
Ehsan Mani further added, “However, the PCB will continue to benefit from their experience and understanding, by including them as members on the Cricket Associations’ interim executive committees (IECs), which will be confirmed shortly. The first and the most critical assignment of the IECs will be to supervise the registration of clubs so that cricketing activities can resume at the grassroots level. I welcome the newly-appointed independent members to the BoG, especially Ms Alia Zafar, the first female independent member, which is a giant step forward in enhancing the PCB’s governance structure.”
ESPNcricinfo understands that the PCB has been involved with funding sponsorship departments, but no department is currently willing to spend money without having a role to play. Almost every department has shut down its cricket departments and revoked hundreds of contracts, although they have retained on their payrolls a handful of prominent players who had full-time jobs.
Reference links: espncricinfo.com
