President Asif Ali Zardari – PCB`s chief patron – has chosen Ijaz Butt as the new PCB chief, ending weeks of suspense that gripped Pakistan cricket since the resignation of former board chairman Nasim Ashraf in August, sources told IANS.
Ashraf stepped down as the PCB chief just hours after General Pervez Musharraf resigned as Pakistan`s president.
Butt, 70, played eight Tests for Pakistan and has since then occupied several key positions in the national cricket set-up. He served as the secretary of the PCB then known as the Board for Control of Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP). He also served as the manager of the Pakistan team. More recently, he was one of the members of the PCB Governing Board.
He was always the front-runner to take over as the PCB chief as he has the backing of Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, who is Butt`s close relative.
Butt is regarded as a hard task-master and is expected to carry out drastic changes in the Pakistan cricket set-up after taking over as the PCB chairman later this week.
Profile of Ijaz Butt
Ijaz Butt was a dependable batsman and more than capable wicketkeeper who made his Test debut against West Indies in 1958-59 as an opener, scoring 41 not out in a ten-wicket win. The following winter he played twice against Australia, making his only half-century at Karachi. In England in 1962 he struggled for form in the three Tests he played, although overall he scored 1016 runs at 28.22 including a hundred before lunch against Kent.
He served as the secretary of the then Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan between 1984 and 1988. He was also the president of the Lahore City Cricket Association for many years. He toured Australia in 1982-83 as manager of the Pakistan team and twice headed the national selection committee. In 2008, at the age of 70, he was appointed as chairman of the Pakistan board following Nasim Ashraf’s resignation.
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