“Politics should not be mixed up in cricket,” Ramiz stated on his YouTube channel. “This is a game of cricketers and a playing field for them. Some people come from outside the circle, and to adjust one person [Sethi], they had to change the entire constitution. I have not seen this anywhere in the world.
Ramiz and different PCB board members had been replaced by a 14-member administration committee, led by former board head Najam Sethi, by Shahbaz Sharif, who not too long ago replaced Imran Khan as Pakistan’s prime minister. The committee has 120 days to vary the PCB’s structure, bringing again the 2014 model, which was replaced in 2019.
The PCB structure – whether or not of 2014 or 2019 – provides the patron the correct to call two direct nominees within the PCB Board of which one is elected as the chair. With the change of presidency normally comes a change of chairmanship and board administration, virtually instantly. But as the brand new authorities – with a coalition of a number of political events – labored its approach by extra urgent issues within the nation, Ramiz stayed below the radar and continued within the place. But his exit was inevitable in the end.
Ramiz: ‘I’d say it is political interference’
“It’s frustrating when you are told to step aside after 12 months when you were given a term of three years,” Ramiz stated. “I would say it’s political interference because you want to recruit someone politically. It will not help cricket and it won’t help with the [lack of] continuity. It leads to pressure on the cricket board, the system, the national team and the captain. The constitution has to be robust. It happens only in Pakistan. I will continue to raise the subject on international platforms. It has become a joke.”
The Pakistan authorities has already revoked the 2019 structure the PCB was working below and has given Sethi’s committee full govt powers to revive the structure of 2014. Apart from the adjustments within the board and its construction, that structure may also deliver division sides again into home cricket – that they had been eliminated in 2019 after Imran grew to become the prime minister [the PM automatically becomes the PCB’s patron].
After his exit from the PCB, Ramiz might return to broadcasting, and Sethi confirmed that the PCB woouldn’t have any points with that.
“I have great respect for him [Ramiz] and let me make it clear that he will not be barred from commentary,” Sethi stated. “I am aware how much pressure he was under from the top [Imran] about me and that’s not his fault. Ramiz is a free man and if he is selected for commentary, he will not be stopped at any stage.”