Former PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan passes away at the age of 89
NEW DELHI: Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan passed away at the age of 89 due to a long-time illness in Lahore on Saturday.
PCB released a statement to announce the demise of Shaharyar Khan which read, “The Pakistan Cricket Board, through its Chairman, the Board of Governors and employees, expresses deep sadness and sorrow over the passing away of former PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan earlier this morning, in Lahore. He was 89.”
In December 2003, Shaharyar took over from Gen Tauqir Zia as PCB chairman. It was a time when PCB’s reputation suffered due to financial mismanagement and allegations of nepotism. After his arrival, the board transformed and appeared as a robust management. His appointment played a crucial role in transforming Pakistan’s cricket.
In 2004, he appointed former English cricketer Bob Woolmer as the coach of the national team and bringing in Woolmer instantly reaped rewards as the team looked more stable. In October 2006, his tenure ended two months before his contract was meant to expire. He was accused of failure to handle players with authority at the time of the Darrell Hair-Oval crisis.
In 2006, umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove stated that the Pakistan team were involved in ball tampering on the fourth day of the fourth Test against England.
He was appointed as the PCB chairman following an illustrious diplomatic career. Between 1957 and 1994, he worked as Pakistan’s foreign secretary as well as the ambassador and a high commissioner. He was Pakistan’s ambassador to Jordan in 1976, before being posted to London in 1987. He also served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to France from 1999 until 2001.
Shaharyar also worked as team manager of the Pakistan team during the 1999 tour of India and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003.
His second stint as the PCB chairman began in 2014 during a time when Pakistan cricket was once again stuck in turmoil. The chairman role saw a change several times between Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf. Shaharyar was finally inducted as the chairman unopposed.
Cricket had long been a part of his life - Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, the former India captain, was his cousin. That his life extended far beyond the game is evidenced in his prolific authorship, which included a history of his home state Bhopal -
The Begums of Bhopal - and a book about the Rwandan genocide - The Shallow Graves of Rwanda. He also wrote a biography of his mother Princess Abida Sultan, called Memoirs of a Rebel Princess.
His attachment to the game and how he saw it as more than just a game, however, endured through three books. The first, A Bridge of Peace, was a manager’s diary of Pakistan’s 1998-99 tour to India, amidst historic peace-making overtures between the two countries and the Kargil war. He also co-authored a history of India-Pakistan cricket with Shashi Tharoor, Shadows Across the Playing Fields. His last book, Cricket Cauldron, co-authored with his son Ali, was arguably his most impressive, a sprawling political, cultural and societal history of Pakistan through the prism of cricket.