ISLAMABAD (AP) – Zaka Ashraf will continue to head the Pakistan Cricket Board for another three months after the managing committee of the PCB was given a near-deadline extension.
The extension was confirmed by the country’s ministry of inter-provincial coordination committee late on Saturday, as the interim PCB management’s initial four-month term expired over the weekend.
Pakistan’s caretaker Premier Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, who is patron of the PCB, hinted in a recent television interview that the Ashraf-led administration could get an extension.
“At this time, you know there is a tournament (World Cup) going on,” Kakar told Dawn News TV on Friday. “We’ll look after this tournament…at this moment, I don’t think we are going to make a big decision. The reason for that is that at times you have to work according to the doctrine of necessity. Once we are past the World Cup, then we’ll see.”
Ashraf has now been asked to conduct the elections for the PCB chairman and also finalize the Board of Governors of the cricket board “at the earliest.”
The ministry has also limited the powers of Ashraf by saying that the “management committee shall perform day to day affairs of the PCB only and shall not make any policy decisions or high level appointments.”
Ashraf replaced Najam Sethi as head of the PCB management committee in July, but since then has come under severe criticism over the working of the cricket board.
Two of the committee members Zulfiqar Malik and Mustafa Ramday alleged Ashraf delayed the chairman elections and even made several appointments at the PCB.
Ashraf also came under fire when the PCB issued a controversial statement during the ongoing World Cup, shifting the blame of Pakistan’s below-par performances in the earlier league games on captain Babar Azam and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq.
There was also a leaked WhatsApp conversation between Babar and a top PCB official, which was even splashed on a local TV channel, which claimed Ashraf told them to air the conversation.
Last Monday, Inzamam resigned as chief selector over allegations of a conflict of interest after reports emerged in local media that the former captain had stakes in a company registered in England.
One of the other directors of this UK-based company is from an agency that represents leading Pakistan cricketers such as Babar, Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan.
The PCB has already formed a committee to investigate the matter and Inzamam said he will resume “if the committee finds me not guilty.”
