Ijaz Butt facing manifold challenges

Newly appointed Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ijaz Butt is facing manifold challenges, both at internal and external fronts, to restore the image of Pakistan cricket hit by doping controversies, indiscipline by the players and internal rifts within the PCB.
The 70-year-old former wicketkeeper-batsman, which played eight Tests for Pakistan, will represent Pakistan in the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting being held in Dubai on October 14 and 15.
At present, Pakistan needs strong lobbying at the international level to have the support of the ICC to persuade its affiliated member countries to convince them not to shift the cricket events with Pakistan, who have been deprived of Test and one-day cricket due to cancellation or postponement of cricket series, including elite Champions Trophy due to security concerns.
The main issue Ijaz Butt will be facing in the ICC meeting to convince the ICC officials that it is safe to tour Pakistan. Ijaz Butt is, however, confident to bring international cricket back to Pakistan. Another challenge Ijaz Butt will be facing is to strike a delicate between the powers of the PCB Chairman and the Governing Board members for the better management of cricket.
But the challenging task him is to amend the PCB constitution. A special committee was constituted to make amendments in PCB constitution and to look into other allied matters, but everything now depends on the new PCB chief, who needs to look into future needs necessary for the betterment of the game of cricket.
Ijaz Butt had already announced that discipline is paramount and he will push everyone hard to overcome this problem, and warned that he would not allow anyone to tarnish Pakistan's cricket image. He also declared that he had the right to pick his own team to run the affairs of the PCB, therefore, some changes in the Board's set-up are visible in the coming days.
Chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed Sallu and National Academy Incharge Mudassar Nazar had already resigned from their posts. "What is needed for the new PCB Chairman is to bring only talented and deserving people in the Board and check wastage of huge resources being spent on perks and allowances of a number of officials, who have no other business in the PCB except to hatch conspiracies and cause harm to the game of cricket," sources in PCB told Business Recorder.
Meanwhile, former Test cricketers have expressed the hope that Ijaz Butt would take Pakistan cricket forward in the right direction. They said Ijaz Butt had all the necessary ingredients of a top class cricket administrator and he was the right man for the job at the moment.
They said the new Chairman had the capability to resolve the delicate issues and put the Pakistan cricket back on track. Different cricket bodies and former cricketers have pinned high hopes in the new PCB chief and only time will prove his worth. The good thing is that Ijaz Butt is aware about the problems, which have plagued the Pakistan cricket, and hopefully he would do his best to come upto the expectations and remove all the problems.