PCB board members declare MD Wasim Khan’s appointment ‘unconstitutional’

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–Five of seven BoG members reject ‘any move to abolish departments and regions in the restructuring of domestic cricket’

–PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani expresses ‘disappointment’ over members’ demands, asks them ‘not to get derailed by personal agendas’

 

QUETTA: The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) 53rd Governing Council meeting went into a frenzy on Wednesday when a prodigious majority of the Board of Governors (BoG) rejected the appointment of Wasim Khan as managing director (MD).

Five of the seven BoG members presented a resolution in which they declared Khan’s appointment ‘unconstitutional’ and hence ‘null and void’.

The members also rejected “any move to abolish departments and regions in the restructuring of domestic cricket” and pushed for the formation of a Domestic Cricket Restructuring Committee (DCRC) to draw up proposals for domestic restructuring, stressing it to be a necessity. The proposals are to be presented at a special BoG meeting on April 30 in Lahore.

Elaborating on the DCRC, the members said that it would comprise all four members of BoG representing four regions along with the departments, and “shall be headed by a regional president representing on the BoG as its chairman and shall be empowered to invite and seek views of stakeholders as and when needed.”

The resolution further stated that the “constitution of PCB shall be amended in the light of recommendations/proposals of the DCRC.”

“The BoG shall defer all the agenda items as circulated for 53rd meeting of BoG till a special BoG meeting is held and the recommendations/proposals of the DCRC are approved and ratified,” it added.

The aforementioned five members were Numan Butt, Shahrez Abdullah Khan, Kabir Ahmed Khan, Shah Dost, and Ayaz Butt.

Speaking to media after the session, president of Sialkot Region Numan Butt claimed PCB chairman Ehsan Mani “lied” that the governing board had approved the appointment of Wasim Khan.

“There is no room for the post of MD in the PCB’s constitution,” Butt added.

EHSAN MANI ‘DISAPPOINTED’

Meanwhile, PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani expressed disappointment over the members’ demands and reaffirmed to ‘not get derailed by personal agendas.’

“I am hugely disappointed by today’s events as I was looking forward to an interactive, productive and constructive discussion, which was aimed at taking Pakistan cricket forward”. He further said that recommendations of the BoG members were ‘completely unreasonable’.

“Yesterday, we called on the honourable Chief Minister of Balochistan and engaged in fruitful and enlightening discussions to promote cricket in Balochistan. It is, therefore, particularly disappointing that the representative from Balochistan also refused to return for the BoG meeting,” he said.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the appointment of British rising star Wasim Khan as the Managing Director (MD) of the board for three years back in January.

The 47-year-old cricketer has played county cricket in England from 1995 to 2001, during which he represented Warwickshire, Sussex and Derbyshire. He also has playing experience in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In a 58-match first-class career, Wasim scored 2,835 runs with five centuries and 17 half-centuries, with a highest score of 181.

He was awarded MBE in 2013 and two years later, he was appointed as the Chief Executive of the Leicestershire County Cricket Club where he has enjoyed a successful stint. In 2005, he was recruited by Lord Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England, to lead a 50million community development project that operated in 11,000 state schools and engaged 2.5 million children across England and Wales.

He has played county cricket alongside Prime Minister Imran Khan and was brought in so that we would bring fresh ideas to the table. Since the beginning, Wasim has been criticized for being a British National and ‘outsider’.