'Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan should resign for cricket disaster' : Najam Sethi

[MenInG]

LAHORE - Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi has demanded resignations of PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani and CEO Wasim Khan saying both have destroyed Pakistan cricket.

Talking to The Nation, Najam Sethi said: “Prime Minister Imran Khan should take some time out of his busy schedule and see how Pakistan cricket is being treated by these two PCB officials. People will forget the political failure of the Prime Minister, but they will never forget his failure as patron of cricket. The media will keep reminding him about this failure.

“Domestic cricket has already been destroyed because of wrong decisions taken by the board administration. And now due to incompetency and unprofessionalism, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is also in danger and its future seems quite bleak now. Both Mani and Wasim, instead of hiring the services of professionals, preferred inept and incompetent officials, who failed to manage players in the bio-secure bubble, and the result is that we are now begging UAE government for holding the remaining PSL matches there.

“Pakistani players had played cricket in England and New Zealand, and they knew well how to stay in the bio-secure bubble. The question here arises that instead of relying on foreign companies for bio-secure bubble, why didn’t the PCB bosses hire the services of Rangers and ISI. During my tenure as PCB chairman, their services were hired, which they did efficiently and played a key role in making the PSL a success. The current PCB high-ups have just been focusing on importing incompetent officials on heavy salaries, who are just destroying cricket and the most popular game of the country is in danger now,” he added.

The former PCB chief said that this is the third year when the domestic cricket couldn’t be organized well, while there is ad-hocs on the associations. “Now the public sector officials are going to monitor the cricket activities in their respective associations. The question here arises that whether the provincial sports boards and Pakistan Sports Board are working so well that they can be handed over the responsibilities of conducting and monitoring cricketing activities. The PCB high-ups should rethink about their decisions, which can further destroy Pakistan cricket.”

Sethi said for the first four years, the financial model of the PSL remained quite good, but it started facing problems in the last two years only. “Actually, the financial model is fine but the issue is with the officials, who are incompetent and unprofessional, and they couldn’t do work in the right direction and brought bad name to the PSL. There is a dire need to take stern action against those, who are bringing bad name to Pakistan cricket. It is my request to the PM to look into the matter and immediately kick Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan out of the PCB as it will help Pakistan cricket flourish again.”

https://nation.com.pk/03-Jun-2021/mani-wasim-should-resign-for-cricket-disaster-sethi

 

[Savak]

Yawn, typical of predecessors to bash the current incumbents. Unlike India, none of our citizens bothers to think of their country first beyond their two minutes of glory.

 

[KyoOne]

Says same Najam Sethi who made a joke of himself by bragging "we are now part of big 4" after signing that sham MOU with India. Later when India did not entertain it, his ego hurt so much that he flimsily decided to take India to court - only later to be embarrassed again when PCB lost the case and had to submit massive damages to BCCI.

Not to forget his politics and duel with Shehariyar Khan when PCB literally had two heads, both taking decisions on personal whims. He would travel with team to tours unnecessarily, and get medical treatments in UK on PCB expenses.

Despite being PCB chief, he invited Misbah to his TV programme and publicly threw tough questions just to increase his ratings.

The day Sharjeel was caughy, he tried to portray himself as hero and bragged on his TV show that "we have concrete evidence against him", though that evidence never surfaced.

Najam Sethi should instead learn about professionalism from Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan. Both diligently go about their business without making a noise or playing politics.

 

[Deewana Mastana]

What a joke!

 

[ugem]

Mashallah, Look who is talking. One who pushed Pakistani cricket back two decades.

A) Accepted Big Three and given unlimited powers to India and in the end, got Pakistani cricket cornered by the BCB.

B) Did nothing to improve standards of Pakistani Domestic Cricket. Domestic Tournament was held between 16 Pathetic Teams on Green Tops with third quality locally made Ball. Which deprived us of developing competitive cricketers.

Just check the ranking where Pakistan was when he left. Due to grassy wickets , Tundlers used to steal the show and Spinners, Batsmen development complete stopped.

C) Did nothing to improve cricketing Infrastructure and increasing National Academies. No new Stadium, Academy, Grounds were built in his time.

D) Nothing was done to fix Club and School cricket.

E) Had enough funds to buy a Bullet Proof Mercedes for him but not for the Kookubura Balls for the Domestic cricket.

 

[Firebat]

Somehow I think his viewpoints are a little biased...

 

[gazza619]

Says same Najam Sethi who made a joke of himself by bragging "we are now part of big 4" after signing that sham MOU with India. Later when India did not entertain it, his ego hurt so much that he flimsily decided to take India to court - only later to be embarrassed again when PCB lost the case and had to submit massive damages to BCCI.

Not to forget his politics and duel with Shehariyar Khan when PCB literally had two heads, both taking decisions on personal whims. He would travel with team to tours unnecessarily, and get medical treatments in UK on PCB expenses.

Despite being PCB chief, he invited Misbah to his TV programme and publicly threw tough questions just to increase his ratings.

The day Sharjeel was caughy, he tried to portray himself as hero and bragged on his TV show that "we have concrete evidence against him", though that evidence never surfaced.

Najam Sethi should instead learn about professionalism from Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan. Both diligently go about their business without making a noise or playing politics.

Thank you for refreshing our memories.

Sethi got away with a lot.

 

[CleverSir]

Did I miss the memo where the PCB has held two PSL seasons in the middle of a pandemic? A successful season of FC cricket which was broadcast around the world on YT which allowed Hasan Ali to come back strong from injury, brought a few batsman to the national conversation, a delayed (due to pandemic) but successful relaunch of club/city cricket association teams which will begin play in the upcoming season? Have there been a few blunders along the way? Sure. However, it has been mostly professional along the way.

 

[PakLFC]

Our Cricket is never settled. This is why we will never be a top side.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Says same Najam Sethi who made a joke of himself by bragging "we are now part of big 4" after signing that sham MOU with India. Later when India did not entertain it, his ego hurt so much that he flimsily decided to take India to court - only later to be embarrassed again when PCB lost the case and had to submit massive damages to BCCI.

Not to forget his politics and duel with Shehariyar Khan when PCB literally had two heads, both taking decisions on personal whims. He would travel with team to tours unnecessarily, and get medical treatments in UK on PCB expenses.

Despite being PCB chief, he invited Misbah to his TV programme and publicly threw tough questions just to increase his ratings.

The day Sharjeel was caughy, he tried to portray himself as hero and bragged on his TV show that "we have concrete evidence against him", though that evidence never surfaced.

Najam Sethi should instead learn about professionalism from Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan. Both diligently go about their business without making a noise or playing politics.

ICC's ACSU apparently had told them about the corrupt activities and their team is quite skilled. Fixers like Nasir Jamshed are quite professional and don't really leave any mark. Nasir has been banned for many other offenses as well and I think by ECB as well.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Don't get the rangers and ISI thing about maintaining the bubble? I don't really know what rangers and ISI do, but certainly patrolling the bubble and telling the cricketers not to form groups inside the hotel and regularly washing their hands and stuff isn't their job. It was a management failure where PCB, the supposed health care "specialists", the franchises(javed afridi esp), (some)players, the protocols and the staff who who designed the bubble all were responsible.

But yes Wasim and Mani have made two blunders in conducting one tournament twice now. First the inadequate management during the tournament when the COVID prevalence in Karachi and Lahore were relatively low, and now all the commercial flight blunder with a lot of crew being unable to fly as well.
There seems to be a big gap in communication still after two major lapses in management while conducting a single tournament.

I do think the two heads definitely have to take a lot of blame for that.

Whoever comes would be one of the close companions of the current government which is likely to be another faulty choice just like it has been with every other government as well.

The circus will continue.

 

[hitthestump]

"People will forget the political failure of the Prime Minister, but they will never forget his failure as patron of cricket"

I stopped reading here. How about the rest of you?

 

[ahmedzee]

Credit where it is due. Najam Sethi did ensure PSL tournament (a conception during Zaka Ashraf's time) became reality. We do know it was just a matter of time, no matter who was incharge of PCB, to proceed with PSL.

In regards to bringing cricket back to Pakistan, 100% credit goes to Wasim Khan. He has connections in UK, and his negotiating skills are tremendous. I credit him for a full return of cricket to Pakistan.

The current management just had one failure in my view, picking a coach. I still feel they picked the wrong coaching staff (maybe it was to save money). Hopefully they fix this issue before the next PCB admins come.

 

[Saj]

No win situation really for Wasim Khan and Ehsan Mani regarding PSL6.

A few people couldn't adhere to rules and regulations during the initial part of the tournament and that was something that was out of the control of Wasim and Mani.

If they had cancelled PSL6 they would have got stick. Now even though they are continuing the tournament they are still getting stick from some quarters.

 

[Savak]

Najam Sethi doing the same thing as the PDM opposition