Ramiz Raja to take over as PCB chairman

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja is all set to take over as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman after Ehsan Mani, who held the post, stepped down on Thursday. Mani served as the chairman for three years after being nominated by Pakistan PM Imran Khan in 2018. He was offered an extension till 2022 after his contract ended on August 25. However, Mani denied the same. Raja’s name was finalised after Imran Khan, who is also the patron-in-chief of PCB, green signalled Raja to take over the post.

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‘I have given him (Imran Khan) my plans. He will make a call,” and decided to wait to hear from the PM’s office. Eventually, the decision was made three days later,” said Raja after meeting Imran Khan.

“The aim is to reset Pakistan crickets GPS and will be in pursuit of excellence,” the former Pakistan captain Raja, who was also a Chief Executive Officer of PCB, said on Thursday. “Pakistan cricket needs a new direction as our rankings in all three formats indicate our cricket is not improving as the prime minister wanted,” he added.

Raja said he had a productive meeting with Imran Khan and has updated the PM on what needs to be worked on to improve Pakistan cricket.

“Pakistan has been extremely inconsistent and, let’s be fair, that the ranking in each format reflects that Pakistan cannot make it into the final of tournaments. The only chance they have is to play the semi-final in T20 format while considering the ODI and Test format it’s hard for them to go past the pool stage. So, I have updated him on things on the cricketing front. We had a productive meeting and it is now his call on how to proceed,” Raja told ESPNcricinfo earlier this week.

The final call on Raja’s selection will be taken by PCB’s board of governors. Ramiz Raja is a veteran in Pakistan's cricket history. He has played 57 Tests and 198 ODIs, scoring 2833 and 5841 runs respectively.