Former Pakistan and Kent cricket captain

LONDON: While offering my heartiest congratulations to Ijaz Butt on his appointment as the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), I would be less than honest if I were not to admit that I was more than just a little puzzled by the calls, made by so many quarters, for the appointment of a cricketer to the post.

With the exception of Sri Lanka, none of the other boards of the Test playing nations are run by a former cricketer and for that matter even the head of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has, for ages, been an administrator rather than a cricketer. In the case of Sri Lanka the appointment of Arjuna Ranatunga has perhaps quite a bit to do with the fact that apart from being a prominent cricketer, he is also a political personality.

I feel that the clamour in Pakistan to have a cricketer heading the PCB is because the role of the Chairman of the PCB is not clearly defined and many PCB bosses have actually taken on a role which is not theirs and was never meant to be theirs.

The head of the PCB, like the head of any department, is an administrative post and his main business is to ensure the smooth running of the affairs of the Board; he is not directly or even indirectly involved with the performance of the national side on the field of play and has nothing to do with the formulation of strategy on the field, the selection of players, the making of pitches or the identification of talent.

These are done through specialist sections or departments within the boards and these departments, for obvious reasons, would have to be run by someone who is well versed in these affairs and a former Test cricketer would doubtless have the desired credentials.

But matters like the setting up of regional associations, spelling out their relations with the Board, foreign tours and all matters pertaining to them, the development of stadia in the country and the laying out of procedures under which cricket development projects are to be undertaken, these are administrative and financial tasks and should be performed by people with administrative and financial expertise under the guidance of the Chairman who, therefore, should be a person with administrative and financial expertise.

He should, of course, be playing a key role in setting up the specialist cricketing departments, so he will have to be someone with a reasonable knowledge of the game and there are many who have not played Test cricket who fit the bill. In fact, even on this score there could be a question whether he should be performing this function entirely on his own.

The problem with Pakistan cricket is that too many Chairmen have not clearly understood their remit. For example, it is ridiculous to have a stipulation that requires the Chairman of the Board to approve a team selected by the Chairman and members of the Selection Committee; on what grounds, except personal favouritism, would a Chairman, no matter how many Tests he has played, change a touring squad which has been announced by the Selection Committee which in any case consists of former Test players who, presumably, have spent weeks following the performance at the national level of many players from whom they have selected the final squad?

It is not the Chairman’s job to be nosing around the players’ dressing room on days when an international encounter is in progress, for his job is neither to buck the team up nor to advice players on tactics; there is a coach who is paid to do exactly that. It is not the Chairman’s job to be present at a training sessions to check whether each member of the team is doing his share of push-ups and that no one is skiving; and it is definitely not the Chairman’s job to be defining strategy or for that matter getting into any technical aspect of the game.

Unfortunately, since so many of the appointments of late have been political appointments of people who are cricket buffs and long to be seen rubbing shoulders with the big names in the sport, their identification of what their job demands has been immature, sometimes to the point of being childish; one former chairman was so excited with his appointment that he asked a leading cricketer to accompany him as he did the rounds of men’s stores in central London buying clothes; he just could not resist the temptation of showing off the cricketer who, rather than the Chairman, was instantly recognised wherever he went; one chairman though that the best way to make an impact was to change the logo of the Board, not realising that the Board represented Pakistan, not a club.

Another personally designed the logo on the national team’s T-shirts which the team wore during practice sessions and yet another thought the best way to demonstrate his deep personal interest in the job was to be present at the team’s physical training sessions.

Indeed, it is this longing for exposure that sees the PCB chairman usually on the podium giving away prizes and trophies when it is here that former Test cricketers rather than the PCB head who should be given the honour and the exposure.

If indeed the Chairman is to play that sort of hands down role, then it perhaps would make sense to have a former Test player. But that is not what a Chairman is or should be asked to do. In fact, given the sort of tasks that constitute his real remit, he should be someone who has been a senior administrator for his job would often require close coordination with other organs of government, local, provincial and federal, like the local municipal committee, the police and other security agencies, the foreign office, the interior ministry etc, etc.

Few cricketers would have had experience of dealing with these organisations, specially at a decision-making high profile level. A career administrator’s personal friendships with people in all departments acquired through a lifetime’s service would stand him in good stead in a society where personal considerations and affiliations invariably prevail over institutional interests.

None of this is to suggest that Ijaz Butt is not the right man for the job. I am sure he is. In fact, along with Waqar Hassan he is perhaps one of the very few cricketers who have good administrative experience. It is just to say that he would be doing both the Board and Pakistan cricket a great service if, during the course of his tenure, he took it upon himself through his actions to spell out correctly — for once — what the job is about and define what it is that should be expected of a PCB Chairman.