Zaka Ashraf resigns as PCB Chairman after talks fail with Pakistan’s Sports Ministry

Pakistan cricket is going through a state of turmoil both on and off the field. Since the ODI World Cup loss against India in their 3rd league match, Pakistan has managed to win only 2 out of their last 14 international outings. 

After a flop show at the ODI World Cup, Pakistan was whitewashed in the three-match test series in Australia and is running behind by 0-4 in the T20I series against New Zealand. In between, their all-format captain stepped down from his captaincy position and new captains were announced for the Test and T20I matches.

PCB Chairman bears the brunt of Pakistan’s flop show

Amid a poor run on the cricket field, there has been enough turbulences in the Pakistan Cricket Board as the previous coaches and selectors were sacked by the board who were then replaced by Mohammed Hafeez and Wahab Riaz. 

In between all the changes and chopping with the Pakistan cricket setup, there has been a recent development that will change the course of Pakistan cricket once again. Pakistan's current cricket board chief Zaka Ashraf has resigned from his position after a meeting at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore. 

Pakistan Cricket Board was currently being headed by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) which was being headed by Zaka Ashraf but after the fourth meeting of the IMC with the Sports Ministry, Zaka Ashraf has decided to step down from his role as the PCB Chairman.

PCB’s internal woes

In November of the previous year, Ashraf received a three-month extension to continue serving as the head of the PCB through a government notification issued by the patron of the board and the current interim prime minister of Pakistan, Anwar ul Haq Kakar.

Initially appointed as the head of the IMC in July of the same year, the ten-member committee's mandate was to finalize the Board of Governors (BoG) and conduct elections for the board chairman within four months. 

However, as this objective could not be achieved within the set timeframe, the committee was granted an additional three months to complete the task. Ashraf's tenure has not been without controversy, with one committee member accusing him of "flagrant misdoings and unconstitutional decisions."