Pakistan Cricket Board unanimously elects Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi as chairman

Lahore: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday unanimously elected veteran administrator Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi as its chairman for a three-year term. The election was held at a special meeting of the Board of Governors (BoG) at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore. “I am deeply honoured and humbled to have been unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board,” Naqvi was quoted saying in the PCB website. “I am thankful for the trust and confidence reposed in me. I am fully committed to upgrading the standard of the game in the country and bringing professionalism in the administration of cricket in Pakistan.” A Pakistani media baron, the 45-year-old Naqvi is the 37th full-time chairman of the PCB. Presently, he is serving as the incumbent caretaker Chief Minister of the State of Punjab.

Former Pakistan skipper Ramiz Raja was their last full-time chairman before he was sacked one year into his tenure due to “political interference” in December 2022. Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf then held the post as interim chiefs with the latter stepping down in January this year. Naqvi has a tough job in his hand with the Pakistan senior team going through its lowest ebb following the ODI World Cup debacle in India last year. After failing to enter the semis of the marquee event, Babar Azam quit as Pakistan skipper. Shan Masood was later appointed as their Test skipper, while pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi took over that role in white-ball formats. But their fortune is yet to see a progressive curve as Pakistan endured a 0-3 whitewash in the Test series in Australia and lost to New Zealand 1-4 in a T20I series.