Ramiz Raja Confirmed As Next Chairman Of Pakistan Cricket Board

Ramiz Raja is set to replace Ehsan Mani as the new Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman. He will take over the position soon after the succession process is complete; Mani’s tenure had ended on Wednesday.

Ramiz Raja was one of the two members nominated by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is also the PCB’s patron in chief. The PM nominated two names to the PCB Board of Governors (BOG) to elect the new chairman – Ramiz Raja, Imran Khan’s teammate in Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup triumph.

The aim is to reset Pakistan cricket’s GPS: Ramiz Raja

Both Ramiz Raja and Ehsan Mani met the Prime Minister on Monday (August 23) afternoon. Raja had then told Cricbuzz, “‘I have given him (Imran Khan) my plans. He will make a call.” 

Now, three days after that meeting, Ramiz Raja, who is also a former Chief Executive Officer of PCB, confirmed his appointment as the new chairman to Cricbuzz on Thursday. “The aim is to reset Pakistan cricket’s GPS and will be in pursuit of excellence,” he said.

The Prime Minister had brought Mani into PCB when after his party won the general elections in 2018. Mani was earlier reported to be given another three-year extension, but it seems that Imran Khan has changed his stance, and is titled towards putting a former cricketer at the helm.

After winning the 2017 Champions Trophy, Pakistan have slumped across formats. Although they have made gains in Test cricket with home series wins, they are far behind other top nations. This is what the selling point of Ramiz Raja has been: not only does he, as an administrator, have good relations with ICC members, being a former cricketer, he would understand the dynamics of international cricket better than Mani.

A renowned commentator now, Ramiz Raja played 255 International matches from 1984 to 1997. He scored 2833 Test runs at an average of 31.83 and 5841 ODI runs at 32.09. He recorded over 10,000 first-class and more than 9000 List-A runs during his 19-year domestic career.

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