Pakistan's cricket board has been suspended and rebuilt again and again
Four times the governing body of Pakistani cricket has had its rules suspended and its running handed to an emergency committee. Chairmen have been appointed by presidents, removed by courts and reinstated months later. Through it all, Pakistan has remained a full Test-playing nation since 1952.
Cricket began in Pakistan the year the country was founded, 1947, arranged informally at first. The Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan held its first meeting on 1 May 1949 at Lahore Gymkhana, with the Nawab of Mamdot as president and Justice A. R. Cornelius among its vice-presidents. In July 1952 Pakistan joined the body now called the International Cricket Council, and its first Test series, in India, ran from October to December that year.
Turbulence came early. The first ad hoc committee took over in September 1960 and stayed until May 1963, writing a constitution under which the country's president nominated the board's president. In November 1976 a pay dispute with players reached crisis point, the national sports board stepped in, and the long-serving president Kardar was forced out in May 1977. Another ad hoc committee followed in 1978 but fell after a poor tour of India provoked public uproar, taking chairman and captain Asif Iqbal with it.
A third emergency committee under Javed Burki arrived in January 1994, gave the organisation its present name, the Pakistan Cricket Board, and created the roles of chairman and chief executive. After accusations of corruption and match fixing, a fourth took charge on 17 July 1999. The board's standing recovered when it sponsored a hugely successful home tour by India in 2004.
The chair kept changing hands. In May 2013 a court suspended chairman Zaka Ashraf over a dubious election; he was reinstated in January 2014, then removed again, and Najam Sethi was chosen by a management committee. Domestic cricket has been reshaped repeatedly too, with first-class competitions fielding anywhere from 7 to 26 teams. In 2019 the board concentrated talent into six regional sides along provincial lines, with 90 city associations overseeing school and club cricket beneath them.
Source: Pakistan Cricket Board
