Business at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, headquarter of the Pakistan Cricket Board is in a state of complete confusion. But top management of the PCB is in sheer panic and trying hard to hoodwink the ardent fans giving them false impression that the business is as usual. The Patron-in-Chief, the prime minister of the country, is battling on the political front amid leakage of Panama Leaks. This has provided PCB Mafia, comprising Shaharyar Khan, Najam Sethi, Subhan Ahmed and Shakil Shaikh,another chance to destroy the national cricket root and branch.
This shameful Mafia has not learned from their blunders and is still engaged in manipulating things for their self-interest and sowing seeds of discomfort for the incoming chairman. Appointment of team coach has been deferred but Inzamam has been tipped to become chief selector and given a free hand to pick his team of selectors as well. One, however, wonders that how the PCB coaxed Inzamam to work on almost half of the $12, 000 per month salary he was earning as coach of Afghanistan cricket team. This is a mystery which I fear would unfold into another scandal in the turbulent history of modern Pakistan cricket which for mediocre former Test cricketers has become a science.
On the government front Federal Minister Riaz Hussain Peerzada has already informed the National Assembly that the name of former Test cricketer Majid Khan has been forwarded to head the PCB in place of octogenarian Shaharyar Khan. Appearing of Majid’s name has spread a panic in the corridors of the Gaddafi Stadium because many deceptive heads would be rolled. Shakil Shaikh, a shrewd manipulator and member of the governing board, has been forced to write a column in an English newspaper for which he works in whichhe made a futile attempt to hoodwink the cricket fans. Cricket world knows Majid as an educated, honest, disciplined and straightforward cricketer who always left the crease before umpire raising his finger.
Pakistan cricket is passing through a complete turmoil that can lead it towards total destruction. Serious punitive actions must be taken immediately. Cosmetic surgery would not work which PCB Mafia is trying to complete. Patron-in-Chief should dissolve the Board and appoint a Managing Committee forthwith. The constitution of the PCB empowers him to take such an action in the larger interest of cricket, the game of gentleman which are in the hands of bad boys. The Managing Committee should prepare a new constitution of the Board taking all stakeholders on board. It requires only a month to prepare a new constitution. District Associations should elect the new Chairman of the PCB whose qualification must be defined. He should be a renowned but reasonably educated former Test cricketer or a retired judge of the Apex Court with adequate knowledge of cricket administration.