Zaka Ashraf, Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman, Sacked by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

Zaka Ashraf has just been removed from his position of Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, and an 11-member committee has been formed and appointed to be running Pakistan cricket.

According to Islamabad Cricket Association (ICA) president, Shakil Shaikh, who is also a member of the committee, Ashraf was let go by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif because he mishandled the case of Pakistan in the latest changes seen in the ICC.

Pakistan abstained from voting in ICC board meeting in the past week during which the big 3 cricket nations – England, Australia and India – received most of the powers in sport's governing body. These 3 countries also secured the required 8 votes from ten full members.

Sharif, as the patron of PCB, appointed PCB’s former chairman Shaharyar Khan, former acting PCB chief Najam Sethi, and former Test cricketers Zaheer Abbas and Iqbal Qasim among the formed committee members. Zaka Ashraf had been restored in the last month by a divisional Islamabad high court bench after he remained suspended since last year for being unable to hold transparent elections for the PCB chairman.

Shaikh said that the removal of Ashraf will "bode well" for PCB. He added, "It's a good decision by the prime minister and now every decision will be made on merit". It was also alleged by Sheikh that Ashraf bungled PCB’s finances and mishandled its international, management and administrative affairs.

After attending an ICC board meeting, Ashraf returned from Singapore early on Monday. Before leaving for Singapore, he had been trying to seek the views of prime minister on the changes to ICC. However, he could not get a response from or meet the Prime Minister.

In some of important changes Ashraf made after his restoration, the appointment of Aamir Sohail as chief selector was the most prominent. He was also due to finalize the batting coach, head coach and the fielding coach for Pakistan. The coach-finding committee that includes Intikhab Alam, Wasim Akram and Javed Miandad had shortlisted 6 candidates for 3 vacant positions.