Rameez Raja new Pakistan Cricket Board CEO

LAHORE - Following a number of changes in the national team and its management, the PCB chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia has decided to ring changes in the set-up of the Board as well to convert it into a lean, mean outfit capable of proactively taking up the challenges at the domestic and international level. A casualty of this serious attempt at shaking up complacency and restructuring the PCB to optimise performance at all levels has been its director, Chishty Mujahid.

One has learnt on good authority that former Pakistan captain Rameez Raja is all set to replace him before the end of this week.

Though Chishty has been offered a graceful exit, on the pretext of his family problems demanding his time, it is indeed a sacking, and the charge among others was his being mostly absent from the PCB headquarters. In his about 10 months in office, Chishty has mostly been away from the Gaddafi Stadium for long spells on one pretext or another. And that includes the entire duration of the World Cup, when he was crisscrossing Southern Africa for a commentary assignment.

Rameez Raja's credentials for the position are impeccable. A post-graduate in business administration, he has remained actively associated with the game since his retirement, and is one of the most respected voices from this country on satellite television.

He is the only survivor from the five-member advisory council formed by Gen Tauqir when the present dispensation took over in late 1999, and he has done it solely on the strength of his performance. As chairman of the PCB's Development Committee, the scope of his work was vast and in areas which had remained unattended and ignored for so long. His lasting contribution in these areas is on-time completion of development projects, which included building from scratch or improving and upgrading grounds and stadiums all over the country. Till now the number of finished projects is a staggering 60.

Another important accomplishment under his supervision is setting up of national and regional academies. His dynamism, ideas and balanced but forthright personality make him into a candidate ideally suited for the position. Especially at this juncture, when he is likely to oversee the restructuring of the Board, fashioned by human resource specialist Amer Saddique, and at the same time reconstruct our domestic cricket.

But above all what Raja brings to the all-important position of the CEO is his intimate knowledge of Pakistan cricket and various obstacles in the way of its growth and progress as well as the demands and exigencies of international cricket. That is not to mention the realisation of the need to turn the PCB into a performance-oriented organisation capable of providing the lead to other sports bodies in this country in terms of excellence in management.

Only time will tell whether Raja has the conviction and drive to address these issues and leave his indelible imprint. But hopefully he would get a fair chance to do all this and more.