PCB to have full-time chairman next month, Mohsin Naqvi front-runner: sources

Lahore: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will have a new chairman next month and Punjab province's caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi is the front-runner for that post, according to sources.

With the tenure of the interim management committee which has run the Board affairs since December 2022 coming to an end on February 4, the process to elect the new chairman of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the PCB will take place after that.

“The PCB should have a new chairman (Mohsin Naqvi) after the general elections (in Pakistan) on 8th February,” the PCB source told PTI.

The PCB had announced on Saturday that the election commissioner and acting PCB Chairman Shah Khawar had finalised the BoG which will elect the new chairman.

Pakistan's caretaker prime minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar, the Patron-in-Chief of the Board, has nominated Mohsin Naqvi on the BoG. Another candidate of the PM, Mustafa Ramday is also on the BoG.

According to the source, Naqvi can only assume charge as elected chairman of the PCB after he relinquishes his position as caretaker chief minister of Punjab which can only happen after the general elections.

“But the path is now clear for electing a new chairman and until then the acting chairman and BoG will run Board affairs,” he said.

The PCB has had three chairmen in less than three years. Ramiz Raja took charge in September 2021 and he was followed by Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf.

Amid the frequent changes in the top brass of the Board, the national team’s performance also dip badly in recent times with Test series defeat in Australia and T20I series loss in New Zealand.