KARACHI: New government, new sports administration. That is the way it works in South Asia as a whole. Former cricketer Ramiz Raja, who was appointed chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) by former premier Imran Khan in September 2021, has been shown the door.
In his place comes a 14-member committee, headed by Najam Sethi, to run the affairs of the game for the next four months at least.
The Pakistan government, through a notification issued by its Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif late on Wednesday, removed Raja following the team’s 3-0 whitewash by England in the just-concluded Test series.
The notification has to be approved by the federal cabinet, which is just a formality, PTI reports.
The developments on Wednesday confirmed speculation that Sharif, who is the patron-in-chief of the PCB, had decided to appoint Sethi as the new chairman of the country’s cricket governing body.
Raja had taken over as the 36th chairman of the PCB after his predecessor Ehsan Mani had stepped down from the post. He was the fourth former cricketer to be appointed to the post after Ijaz Butt (2008-11), Javed Burki (1994-95) and Abdul Hafeez Kardar (1972-77).
Sethi was the chairman and CEO of the PCB from 2013-2018 and resigned soon after Imran Khan and his party won the 2018 general election.
