ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Zaka Ashraf on Wednesday became the country's first elected head of the sport, winning a four-year term under a new constitution approved earlier this year.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) directed all its members to run their boards democratically and without government interference, threatening sanctions for any board that did not meet its requirements by June 2013.

Ashraf, 60, has been PCB chairman since October 2011, when he was appointed by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari under the old system.

But the PCB's governing board elected him back into the job under the new regulations, having presented the International Cricket Council (ICC) with a new constitution last month.

“Zaka Ashraf has taken over as the first elected chairman of the PCB who will serve his tenure of four years from today as prescribed in the PCB constitution,” the board said in a statement.

Alan Isaac, the ICC president, last month commended the PCB's effort to reform.

Despite Ashraf's election, the PCB is reportedly facing opposition from various associations and former PCB chiefs on the voting process.