Former International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani has been elected unopposed as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Ehsan Mani has been elected as PCB chairman for a period of three years. A meeting of the Board of Governors (BoGs) of the PCB was held here at the Qadhafi Stadium on Tuesday.
Election Commissioner former Justice Afzal Haider along with Deputy Election Commissioner Ahmed Shahzad Farooq Rana supervised the election process. No body from amongst the PCB's board turned up to contest election against Mani who was Prime Minister Imran Khan's nominee for the post.
The PCB chairman's post had been lying vacant since the previous PCB chief, Najam Sethi, tendered his resignation last month. Mani previously represented the PCB at the ICC, cricket's governing body, as Treasurer for three years and later headed the body for another three years from 2003 to 2006.
Ehsan Mani has also served on the Board of Governors of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust Hospital - a charity project of PM Khan - but on an honorary basis without withdrawing any salary.
Mani believes the PCB is in need of 'a major overhaul'. Mani told before his election that if he was elected the PCB chief, he would work on improving domestic cricket for which he had "short and long-term strategies. "We have to make a five-year plan besides focusing on school, college and club cricket," he said. "We will dig out the best talent in youngsters and will give them a chance to prove themselves at the international level." In order to "bring Pakistani cricket on the right path," Mani said, he would "take suggestions from [the country's] cricket legends".
Moreover, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has congratulated Ehsan Mani on becoming the unopposed chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Extending good wishes to him, the Chief Minister hoped that it would help to improve the game of cricket in Pakistan.