LAHORE In a significant move on Friday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt took away the administration charge from his Chief Operating Officer (COO) Wasim Bari and handed it over to Senior General Manager Subhan Ahmed.

The move indicates that Bari, at one time the PCB chief's most trusted official, had lost his confidence and could struggle from hereon.

The chairman also instructed General Manager Human Resources Asad Mustafa to work under Subhan Ahmad and the entire move could go on to make Bari a powerless COO.

It must be mentioned here that Ijaz had dished out similar treatment to his first COO Saleem Altaf before suspending him without any solid reason. He had then forwarded Bari's name to the Governing Board as his next COO which was duly approved. Prior to that elevation in job, Bari was serving as the head of the Human Resources department.
Sources close to PCB told Dawn on Friday that the chairman suspected Bari of having something to do with the leak of the Board's inquiry committee report to the leading TV channels under which seven Test cricketers were penalised.

Sources further said that Bari had already sensed the change of wind and was already contacting some close friends of the President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari who is also the patron of PCB.

In another development, the chairman asked general manager Usman Wahla to work under Subhan instead of serving under media incharge Nadeem Sarwar.

During the 18 months' tenure of Ijaz Butt, the national cricket has seen four captains of the national team, two head coaches, three chief selectors, two new CFOs, besides one new COO. Nepotism has been the other major allegation levelled against Ijaz Butt since he has obliged a good number of relatives by giving them various posts in the PCB.