As Pakistan resists overhauling its creaky cricket administration, the question is whether the International Cricket Council can force change upon a local board with strong vested interests in maintaining the status quo.Unlike most of the 10 test-playing nations, the Pakistan Cricket Board has been run on an ad-hoc basis for more than a decade. The past five chairmen were: A politician, a general, a retired diplomat, a technocrat, and a retired test cricketer.
There was just one thing all these men shared: They were directly appointed by the Pakistan president of the time, who is also the all-powerful patron-in-chief of the PCB. He enjoys sweeping powers and can change the board with a stroke of his pen.
Incumbent PCB chief Ijaz Butt had a modest record as an international cricketer, but his brother-in-law Ahmad Mukhtar is a defence minister in the present government of the Pakistan Peoples Party. It was no surprise when the then 70-year-old Butt got the PCB post when the government came to power in 2008 under Asif Zardari.
The governing board includes eight direct appointees of the president with six representatives of associations and departments. Even the appointment of the associations’ and departments’ representatives required Zardari’s approval.
This undemocratic setup has finally caught the eye of the ICC, which has urged all cricket nations to remove government interference in the sport’s administration; mirroring the approach taken by the International Olympic Committee and football’s governing body FIFA.
The ICC gave the PCB the final report by the Pakistan Task Team, a body set up in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus and security convoy in 2009, and which boasted the likes of former England captain Mike Brearley and ex-Australia captain Greg Chappell.
Since that terrorist attack, Pakistan has not been able to host any international tours and was stripped of co-hosting rights for this year’s World Cup.
Key among the task team’s recommendations was the removal of the country’s president as patron and an end to politically driven appointees, but unsurprisingly this was resisted by the powers-that-be at the PCB. The PCB said it refused to accept that its administrative setup was “faulty” and rejected introducing elections for chairman. “The circumstances in Pakistan are unique and cricket administration requires and deserves government support without which international cricket may not be able to return to Pakistan,” the PCB said in its reponse to the ICC. “Keeping in view the extraordinary security situation in the country, having the president as patron of PCB adds tremendous value and comfort.” Cricket analysts in Pakistan believe that the PCB had not recognized the gravity of the matter and the urgency for change.
“It’s a very grim situation,” says Zakir Hussain Syed, a veteran cricket analyst, who has worked as a development officer for the Asian Cricket Council. “They (PCB) are not realizing that if they continue to adopt a confrontation policy with the ICC it will cause a mess and damage will be serious.”
Syed said “the sensible thing to do is to implement those recommendations” in the task team’s report.
However, what is good for Pakistan cricket may not be the same thing as what is good for Butt and other PCB officeholders. The ICC has also made it mandatory for all the cricket boards to bring in elected heads within two years. This gives Butt enough time to see out his tenure without doing much to reform the PCB. Butt’s term ends in October and he himself is not sure whether he will be at the helm of the PCB after that. “It all depends on my boss and we will see how things go when the time comes,” Butt said in a recent television interview.
There are some cricket associations — like Karachi City Cricket Association — which often criticize Butt’s policies. However, thus far nothing has been done collectively by the local associations, including those from other big cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
“They (associations) all have vested interests and need the financial support of the PCB,” said an official of a cricket association on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
The task team’s report was presented to the executive board meeting of the ICC last month and PCB chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed got a copy of it one week before that meeting was held in Hong Kong.
“(Subhan Ahmed made) only minor observations which were incorporated into the final report,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.
In a country where now there’s no sports ministry, Syed believes there’s virtually no hope of reforming the PCB.
“There’s no authoritative institution in the country to look into the system so who could try and help in electing chairman of the PCB?” Syed asked.
Who will bring reforms in Pakistan cricket?
