PCB names Haroon Rasheed as new chief selector

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi Monday named Haroon Rasheed as the new Chief Selector of the Pakistan Cricket team.

Announcing the news in a press conference in Lahore, Sethi said the announcement regarding the rest of the members of the selection committee will be made later.

He said he was making the announcement due to rumours regarding the issue circulating in the media.

Haroon Rasheed, 69, has previously served as Pakistan's chief selector between 2015 and 2016 and will take over from Shahid Afridi, who had been named interim chief selector by the new PCB regime under Sethi.

Haroon Rasheed played 23 Tests and 12 ODIs for Pakistan between 1977 and 1983 and apart from his previous role as a selector he has also served as PCB's Director of Cricket Operations and the Pakistan team manager. He will step down from his current post as a member of the PCB Management Committee to take up his new role.

"We don't want to create any further misunderstandings due to a lot of speculation. Hence, I confirm this appointment. Haroon will get time to make his team and work for the betterment of Pakistan," he added.

While looking forward, Sethi thinks Haroon is the right man for this job. "I have worked with him personally. He is a competent individual and I have given him free hand to make his team and take decisions," shared the management committee's chairman.

Pakistan will not pull out of their upcoming bilateral series against Afghanistan, like Australia did, with PCB chairman Najam Sethi saying that "cricket and politics should be kept separate". The series in March, however, will now comprise three T20Is and not ODIs and will be played at an offshore venue, with the Afghanistan and Pakistan boards sharing the revenue 50-50.

On January 12, Cricket Australia had announced its decision to withdraw from playing Afghanistan because of the Taliban's "further restrictions on women's and girls' education" in Afghanistan. When asked about PCB's stance on the issue, Sethi said: "That is not our business and we don't like to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. My personal stance is that politics and cricket shouldn't be mixed up, so following that principle the series is subject to pending approvals from the Pakistan government and I think approvals will be granted."

"I met with the executive members of Afghanistan Cricket Board and they were asking us to play an ODI series but we didn't find any attraction playing the series," Sethi said at a press conference on Monday. "It's mainly because the series was meant for the [Super League] points, and now no matter who wins it won't make a difference. So we agreed to play a series of three T20Is in Sharjah just after the PSL subject to government approval. We will share 50% of the revenue from the series equally. And we will jointly outsource the production."
The bilateral series against Pakistan was meant to by hosted by Afghanistan in the UAE in 2021 but had to be postponed following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan because no commercial flights were taking off from Kabul at the time.

The T20I series will be played between March 20 and 28. Pakistan are also scheduled to play another three-match ODI series against Afghanistan in August 2023.