New Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in charge Najam Sethi straightaway sprang into action by making his stance on India and Pakistan bilateral cricketing ties clear. Sethi, who took charge of PCB on Thursday after Ramiz Raja was removed. Sethi has been appointed as head of the 14-member committee which will be responsible to run the cricketing affairs in Pakistan for the next four months.
"Governments in both countries have to be consulted when it comes to bilateral and other cricket relations between Pakistan and India," Sethi told reporters in Lahore.
The BCCI and PCB have been at loggerheads ever since ACC chairman and BCCI secretary Jay Shah said India won't travel to Pakistan for next year's Asia Cup and that the tournament will be shifted to a neutral venue. In a sharp retaliation, Raja had threatened to pull out of the ODI World Cup scheduled to take place in India in the latter half of 2023.
Sethi, who was chairman and CEO between 2013 and 2018 before resigning after the Imran Khan-led government took charge in 2018, appeared unhappy with the announcement of the Pakistan Test squad for the home series against New Zealand by the old management.
"I don’t know whether there is a need to make changes in the squad, we will see if fresh ideas are required. It would have been better if the squad had not been announced,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}"I don’t know whether there is a need to make changes in the squad, we will see if fresh ideas are required. It would have been better if the squad had not been announced,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The government on Wednesday night issued a notification confirming the appointment of the management committee while removing Ramiz Raja, but the sitting chief selector Muhammad Wasim announced the squad for the NZ series.
Sethi dropped clear hints that there would be changes in the Board, including in cricket-related areas.
“I think we had done a good job in our four-five year tenure before I resigned. But what has happened in the last four years everyone can see,” he said.
Sethi also made it clear that the country's prime minister wanted a revival of departmental teams and regional cricket associations.
“That is our main priority to revive departmental cricket because in the last four years we have seen a terrible rise in unemployment and a famine in cricket talent. The old system worked well for us and we got players from domestic cricket. Nowadays it seems we are only getting players from PSL,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)