Ehsan Mani calls 2019 a landmark year in Pakistan cricketing history

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani on Tuesday said that the year 2019 will be remembered as a landmark year in Pakistan’s cricketing history.

“It ended with the country taking a major stride in ensuring full resumption of international cricket in Pakistan as Sri Lanka played two Tests in Rawalpindi and Karachi in December. Prior to the Test series, Pakistan had staged eight HBL Pakistan Super League matches in Karachi in March, while Karachi and Lahore played host to Sri Lanka in white-ball cricket in September/October, he said while reviewing year 2019.

“Furthermore, the revamp of the domestic structure led to riveting cricketing action on-field which renewed the fans’ interest in domestic events and various steps were taken to make the PCB a transparent corporate body. On the field in 2019, Pakistan produced mixed results,” he said.

Mani said: “Pakistan emerging sides produced more consistent performances. The U19s won the series in Sri Lanka and South Africa, while the Emerging side won the ACC tournament in Bangladesh. Women were not too far behind and despite being on the losing end against England, they were impressive in their shows against the West Indies and South Africa.” 

The PCB got unprecedented recognition in the ICC with PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani, Chief Executive Wasim Khan and Senior Legal Counsel Barrister Salman Naseer sitting on five influential committees. Implementation of the new PCB Constitution 2019 and rolling of transparency and accountability with the PCB uploading its Chairman’s Statement of Expenses and Benefits are the administrative achievements of the year.

Mani said: “We had four objectives for the year 2019 and we have successfully met all of them. We had to reform our constitution, make the governance structure of the cricket board transparent, introduce corporate practices through clear delegation of duties and fully restore international cricket in Pakistan.

“The genesis of better on-field performances in international cricket is in domestic cricket. We have made massive investment in the revamping of our domestic structure in a very short time which has resulted in a very successful Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.