Sethi elected PCB chairman ‘Bring international cricket back at home’
Lahore, Pakistan – Najam Sethi has been unanimously elected as the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the next three years by the PCB’s new Board of Governors (BoG) on Wednesday. Sethi was elected from within the ten-member BoG as no other member of the BoG filed nomination papers for the post.
The previous three-year tenure ended when chairman Shaharyar Khan resigned, aged 83, citing personal and health reasons.
This is Sethi's second term in charge after the long battle over the leadership of the PCB between Zaka Ashraf and Sethi, which ended in May 2014; there had been multiple leadership changes in the PCB, after Ashraf became the first elected PCB chairman in May 2013.
The Islamabad High Court termed those elections "dubious", and Sethi was put in charge by the government. Ashraf and Sethi were then alternately reappointed and sacked from the post several times, before Sethi eventually filed a written statement before the court that he will not contest elections for the chairman's post.
Sethi, however, remained on the PCB's BoG and head of the Executive Committee (ExCo) to control cricket affairs in Pakistan. The 69 year old is a former caretaker chief minister of Punjab and comes from a journalism background. He has also been a driving force behind the Pakistan Super League. The newly-elected chief vowed on Wednesday to bring international competition back to the terror-hit country after years of isolation. "We need to show patience because it is related to the security situation in the country," he told media.
Barring a limited-over series against Zimbabwe in 2015, Pakistan has not hosted foreign squads since a militant attack targeted the visiting Sri Lankan team in 2009.
Sethi said he hoped the World XI tour next month would pave the way for future competition in the country. "We hope to bring a World XI for a three-match Twenty20 series and the next two-three months will bring more good news."