Four nominees included in BoG in place of elected members

LAHORE: For the first time in history an unelected Board of Governors (BoG) was formed on Monday as the Pakistan Cricket Board included four more nominated members in place of four elected ones, while still all the three elected members are yet to come as the PCB continues to make the mockery of its affairs.

The new BoG was constituted during its 59th meeting held here on Monday under PCB chairman Ehsan Mani.

The PCB issued a press release after the BoG meeting on Monday.

“The BoG, in accordance with PCB Constitution 2019 Clause 12(1)(c), unanimously approved the appointment of four independent members. They are: Mr Javed Kurieshi, Mr Arif Saeed, Mr Aasim Wajid Jawad and Ms Alia Zafar. Mr Javed Kurieshi and Mr Arif Saeed have been appointed to the BoG for a three-year period, while Mr Aasim Wajid Jawad and Ms Alia Zafar have been appointed for a two-year period,” the press release said.

Inclusion of three elected members looks a distant possibility

“Following the appointment of the four independent members, the new BoG has been formed. The remaining three members on the BoG will be appointed following completion of the election process at the Cricket Association level.”

According to the new PCB constitution which was implemented from Aug 19, 2019, new BoG was to be formed forthwith but it took 15 months for the PCB to give new shape to the BoG.

However, still the BoG structure remains undemocratic and incomplete as no elected member has been included in it yet.

So far all the seven members are nominees. Among them PCB chairman Ehsan Mani and Asad Ali Khan are the nominees of patron-in-chief of the PCB Prime Minister Imran Khan, while four new members — Javed Qureshi, Arif Saeed, Aalia Zafar and Asim Wajid Jawad — were nominated by the PCB nominee committee, which was formed soon after the implementation of the new constitution on Aug 19, 2019.

But the committee took 15 months to name four persons and hardly anyone of them holds cricketing background. The seventh BoG member is PCB chief executive Wasim Khan.

The nominee committee was headed by Asad Ali Khan with Abdullah Shahriaz Rokhari (both members of the BoG) and Bakhtiar Khawaja were the members.

The previous BoG, it can be recalled, was more democratic and performance-oriented as it contained four elected members from defunct regional cricket associations on rotation basis plus four members from defunct departments, affiliated with the PCB; and their representative came in the BoG after their teams attained top four positions in domestic cricket, while the remaining three members were nominated.

However, now with only three elected members of the cricket associations — who are yet to be elected — their weight in decision making will be formal.

Meanwhile, the PCB press release added,“The BoG expressed its delight that the remaining four HBL PSL 2020 matches will be played from Nov 14-17 and the foreign cricketers had already started to arrive in Karachi, while South Africa’s tour for two Tests and three T20Is in January-February 2021 was also on track.

Moreover, all eight members of the old BoG (four from regions and as many from departments) in fact should have gone home soon after the implementation of the new PCB constitution last year. But they were allowed to continue their working, giving a cover under the transformation period clause of the constitution, which has now been extended to 15 months. However, still the new BoG is incomplete and the PCB is yet to form a new general body under the new constitution.

Bringing in three cricket association members into the BoG, it seems, may well take years if not more as the PCB is yet to announce an interim-set up of six cricket associations, to first scrutinise clubs across the country and then hold their elections followed by the elections of 90 city cricket associations. And in the last phase the elections of the six cricket associations will be held.

“The BoG welcomed the England and Wales Cricket Board’s statement that it was considering a short tour to Pakistan in January 2021 and congratulated the PCB for its efforts in convincing a leading cricket nation like England to consider touring ahead of their expected full tour in 2022. It was acknowledged that this will prove to be the catalyst for New Zealand, Australia and England’s tours in 2021 and 2022,” read the press release.

“In line with the PCB’s zero-tolerance policy for any form of corruption or dishonest behaviour by any of its officers or players, the BoG approved the PCB Whistleblowing Policy, which incorporates all relevant stakeholders in addition to PCB employees, officials, players and players support personnel.

“According to the policy, any person who becomes aware of any matter or behaviour that may amount to Whistleblower Information can report the same to the Chief Operating Officer via email (whistle@pcb.com.pk) along PCB declares PKR3.8b profit in 2019-20 fiscal year.

“The BoG approved the audited financial statements 2019-20, which included an after-tax-profit of PKR3.8 billion. The PCB reserves now stand at PKR17.08 billion as compared to PKR13.28 billion in the 2018-19 financial year,” said the release.

Late on Monday, the PCB issued another press release, according to which the 60th meeting of the BoG was convened for Tuesday at the National High Performance Centre in Lahore.

According to the press release, the agenda of the said meeting includes chairman and CEO’s reports, presentation on the PCB, appointment of BoG committees and update on cricket associations (CAs).