LAHORE: Former Pakistan fast bowler Aqib Javed said on Wednesday that Ramiz Raja should have quit his post as the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board once Imran Khan had been ousted as Prime Minister.

“Many chairmen in the past had left the post with the ouster of the prime minister who had appointed them and Ramiz should’ve followed suit,” Aqib, a part of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning side alongside Ramiz under the leadership of Imran, told reporters.

Ramiz, who was appointed the PCB chief in September of 2021 for a term of three years after winning an unopposed election, was removed last week when a 14-member PCB management committee headed by former chairman Najam Sethi was placed to run cricket affairs in the country.

Aqib, the coach of Pakistan Super League franchise Lahore Qalandars, said Ramiz had gained few friends during his tenure as PCB chief.

“A lot of people were unhappy during his time at the top,” said Aqib. “The pool of the players had been limited to just 200. Ramiz ran the PCB as a one-man show and neither the players, franchises of the PSL nor the PCB employees happy with his attitude.”

Sethi has outlined his vision to restore departmental cricket under the PCB constitution of 2014 and Aqib hailed it “as a good step to increase the pool of players”. “With jobs in departments, it will see more people take up cricket,” he said.

PCB HITS BACK AT CLAIMS

Earlier on Wednesday, the PCB issued a lengthy statement expressing its “disappointment” over the comments made by Ramiz against Sethi on his YouTube channel as well as a television interview. It also attempted to provide clarity to Ramiz’s claims.

“The PCB believes former chairman Mr Raja’s comments are aimed at tarnishing and damaging the impeccable reputation of present chairman

Mr Sethi, and it reserves it’s rights to pursue legal proceedings to protect and defend the image and credibility of its Chairman and the institution,” read a PCB statement.

It noted that it had already rebutted allegations from Ramiz that he’d not been allowed to collect his belongings. It also said that comparisons made by Ramiz about his expenditures to those made by Sethi during their time as chairmen of the PCB are “misleading and inaccurate as the circumstances are incomparable” as Pakistan played most of its cricket overseas while the Pakistan Super League too was held in the United Arab Emirates.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2022