Heading the PCB

There needs to be a check on the kind of control the PCB chief has, whoever he may be.

Pakistan has always needed a strong and capable leader to unite its people. This can also be translated into saying that the people have needed a tough chief to lead and guide the way. Perhaps, it is the people’s own shortcomings — lack of education, inter and intra-group factions, inability to accept diversity and change — that necessitate a better manager at the helm.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is not that different. Heading the PCB is a difficult and demanding job. While it is a private firm, which means it is required to generate its own revenue and reinvest it; its product — the national cricket team — is not. The team members are, in fact, national stars who attract millions of eyes to every move they make and every move they don’t make. With the media acting like self-proclaimed watchdogs, tracking and tracing every movement, it makes the job of the PCB chief all the more challenging.

Take the case of ex-chief Zaka Ashraf who became the board’s first elected head and took over from Ijaz Butt, who, by the end of his tenure, had seen the lowest point of Pakistan cricket. It was in a shambles, to say the least, with spot-fixing taking its toll on every cricketer and just about every fan.

Ashraf, hand-picked by President Asif Ali Zardari, was brought in at a tough time. His lack of cricketing sense and knowledge made the cynics jump off their seats and pushed even the most optimistic people towards scepticism. The most urgent job was for him to understand the dynamics of the PCB, which, despite the absence of a constitution, has always remained functional.

Slowly and gradually, he understood the mechanics and, while his learning of cricket was slow, his diplomacy and skills helped him gain value as PCB chief.

The problem occurred when the PCB chief, perhaps in his high-flying state of mind, went overboard with his intelligence and did not foresee what a good leader should: where to draw the line between leadership and the plain, old glorified version of dictatorship.

Multiple mistakes, in fact blunders, were made by Ashraf when he excluded Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad from the PCB election process. This decision was unfathomable and sent out alarm bells of the days to come.

The power of the PCB chief is immense — and it should be. Managing and disciplining cricketers, who at times can be egoistic, and keeping calm in front of an overzealous media are tough demands.

Having control is, therefore, a good thing. But there needs to be a check on the kind of control the PCB chief has as well — whoever he may be.

The ICC, the sport’s world governing body, will definitely be a good watchdog. But it has been demonstrated, time and again, that it, too, is not interested in addressing key issues.

So, who do we give the task of placing checks and balances to? The media has its own agenda and always will. Government intervention has been stopped anyway.

The only other option, the most viable one that is, is to form a group of former cricketers, conduct elections and ask it to finalise the appointment of the PCB chief. Ignoring any region will have disastrous effects. It needs to be understood that cricket is a national game and will continue to enjoy that status.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.

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