By Syed Intikhab Ali
Karachi: Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Trust has offered Pakistan’s former cricket administrator Arif Ali Khan Abbasi the position of technical director. His task will be to organize a “Champions Double-Wicket Championship”, Scoreline learnt on Monday.
Sources said Abbasi has accepted the offer and will go to Kenya soon.
Abbasi is a well-known cricket organizer. He organized World Cups in 1987 and 1996 successfully as head of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
The trust officials informed Abbasi that they are organizing the double-wicket championship in Nairobi.
Kenya’s authorities want to make cricket one of the mainstream sports of the country.
They informed Abbasi that a four-day meeting has been arranged with Cricket Kenya in later part of this month and the Nehru Sports Trust keeping in mind his vast experience. They want Abbasi to help them devise strategies to promote the game in the country.
It is interesting to note that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi resigned in less than 48 hours after the newly-elected Prime Minster Imran Khan took oath. The latter has nominated former ICC chairman Ehsan Mani the PCB chairman.
Mani has been declared an ideal choice in the current scenario. But it would have been a lot better if Abbasi had been hired by Pakistan’s authorities to help Mani in his endeavours.
Abbasi is well-known and highly respected across the cricket world for his expertise in cricket administration. He has worked at all levels of cricket, from the grassroots to international level.
It is pertinent to note that during past ten years the PCB has become an institution full of sycophants. A clerk-type person has been appointed as CEO of PCB. And we are a nation which has produced a number of great cricketers, including PM Imran Khan himself, and great organizers of the game.
Mani has had close working relations with Abbasi because when the latter was PCB’s head Mani was the representative of Pakistan at ICC.
The cricket fraternity expects Mani to throw out the narrow-minded employees of PCB, who have done nothing to promote cricket but have built up big bank accounts due to talent of our cricketers.
They have destroyed the infrastructure in the country and failed to bring back international cricket in Pakistan.
The combination of Mani and Abbasi can bring back the old golden days of Pakistan cricket which was once respected by all cricket-playing nations.