New chief in town

And he’s gone. After three years of uninterrupted trauma that saw Pakistan cricket in free fall and reaching its nadir, the reign of Ijaz Butt has come to an end, finally. The only bright spot in an otherwise forgettable period were that triumph in the Twenty20 World Cup 2009 and the Test match victory against a declining Australia after 15 years.

But befitting a high-flying executive in his in-laws’ shoe company, his legacy, as he would want it remembered, is the five billion rupees he left behind in the coffers after Dr Nasim Ashraf’s profligate ways had nearly eaten up funds needed for the development of the game, and secondly, his cutting down to size of the player power.

The first claim definitely has a ring of truth about it, but the second is a lot of bull, pure and simple. How could he even think of such an outlandish assertion as quashing player power when one thing that he singularly pursued was destruction of the very fabric of the team, not allowing it to settle-down until very recently Misbah ul Haq took over as the last resort, changing captains before every major series was a norm under his watch, and when three of our leading lights were facing criminal charges in Her Majesty’s court?

Ijaz Butt was a disaster, an unmitigated one at that. Under the prevalent constitution of the Board, the chairman has unlimited power. Nothing happens until he nods, and whatever he does, he remains unaccountable. The governing board is a mere charade, and a sorry one at that. Once nominated, he is answerable only to the patron-in-chief and this relationship is another force multiplier for him.

Of all his predecessors since the turn of the century, Butt stood out not just for his bull in the proverbial china shop sort of decision-making, but his absolute abhorrence of delegation of power. In diplomacy with the ICC and other member boards too, he was no Bismark, nearly bringing about a rupture with the world’s governing body by some frivolous and unsubstantiated remarks.

Butt’s failures may have been far too many, but he was a known commodity. In the 1970s when he interfaced for his father-in-law president of the Board (in those days the BCCP), he had earned a reputation for being inept and brusque. In the mid 1980s when he got into the Board again as its chief executive officer (the exact title was secretary), we again saw him earn us nothing but ignominy from the Mike Gatting-Shakoor Rana fracas and without doubt the 1987 World Cup would have been a colossal management failure had Tahir Memon not been appointed as an independent director.

So expecting him suddenly to turn into a high achiever and do great things in these most difficult post-Sri Lanka team attack times was a tall order from the outset. The patron, who happens to be president of Pakistan and is fast developing a reputation for invariably discovering the person most unqualified for whichever job he is being appointed to, was not without fault, for Butt’s highest qualification was not his reputation for cricket or corporate management savvy but being some bigwig’s brother-in-law who had to be obliged.

With yet another political appointment in Zaka Ashraf, the same mistake has now been repeated. Only this time round, the person happens to be the patron’s childhood chum with credentials that have already been questioned – on issues of competence and integrity, with no credible rejoinder forthcoming. One does not want to don the mantle of a soothsayer and predict that Zaka Ashraf will be a failure, but the chances of such a rank outsider making a success of it in a difficult milieu made more difficult by his predecessor are indeed scant. The past record also disproves it.

Regardless of how huge a letdown Butt was, one has to grant him one thing: he ran the Board with a tightfistedness that would have made the most miserly proud. There are examples of him rewarding cronies here and there, but other than his own globetrotting, generally he was not into squandering the Board’s money. Zaka is a political partisan. And coming from a culture where patronage is the norm, the Board could get seriously milked. It is well in the black at the moment, with Rs seven billion in the pipeline, but this needs to be spent on our cricket and our infrastructure, not in turning it into another Income Support Programme for the party faithful. But this is kind of hoping against hope.

It is just that those at the helm do not want to look beyond their noses. Otherwise a decent, far better qualified replacement for Butt could have been found. Now what are the basic criteria for the job? Knowing the ropes, corporate finesse, financial nous, and above all, familiarity with the international movers and shakers of the game? There may be others, but off-the-cuff, a shortlist of two: first, Ehsan Mani, second, Majid Khan.

Mani has been there for almost a generation, is on a first-name basis with those who matter in the ICC and elsewhere, and his financial and corporate acumen is second to none in the world. He rose to become the chairman of the ICC – the only one acceptable to his peers in the game’s governing body when Pakistan’s turn in the rotation came in 2003.

Majid may not be exceptionally bright, but his three years as the PCB’s CEO in the late 1990s were scandal-free. And he certainly knew how to get the best out of those working under him in the system and outsource to the right people. His integrity was beyond reproach and his charisma in the cricketing world still lingers.

To the detriment of our cricket, we won’t benefit from such exceptional talents as the powers-that-be insist on reposing their trust in Ijaz Butts and Zaka Ashrafs.

The writer is Sports and Magazines Editor, Pakistan Today.