As per an ICC release, Ehsan Mani has been elected the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for a period of three years, it was confirmed on Tuesday. Like his predecessor, Najam Sethi, Mani, a former ICC president, was elected to the post unopposed after he was nominated to the Board of Governors (BoG) by the country's Prime Minister, who is the Patron of the country's cricket board according to its constitution.
A special meeting to elect the new chairman was called by the PCB election commissioner Justice Afzal Haider. As Mani was the only BoG member to file his nomination - there were no other nominees - he was declared the PCB chairman after scrutiny.
Minutes after Sethi submitted his resignation last month, Pakistan PM Imran Khan took to Twitter and nominated Mani to the BoG. Four days later, he nominated Asad Ali Khan, a chartered accountant like Mani, as his second nomination to the BoG.
As per the PCB constitution, the patron nominates two members to the BoG. The rest of the eight are equally divided between the top performing regions and service organisations of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, country's premier first-class tournament. Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination appoints the 11th member, an ex officio, who attends and voices his/her opinion in the meeting but doesn't have a right to vote.
In his early years, he played cricket for the Rawalpindi Club from 1959 to 1965 as a left-arm fast medium bowler and a right-handed batsman alongside a number of players who went on to earn international honours.
After a break from cricket, he once again made a comeback in the late 90s and represented PCB in the sports world body from 1989 till 1996. During this period, he also represented PCB in the organising committee of the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, and went on to become a member of the ICC Cricket World Cup Advisory Committee for the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England.
He is known for playing a major role in the sale of ICC media rights in 2000; negotiations which achieved a guaranteed income of $550 million for international cricket, up to and including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Finally, in June 2003, Mani became the ICC President and went on to represent the governing body until 2006.
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