Zaka brings Midas touch to national cricket

KARACHI - Zaka Ashraf took over as new head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in the middle of October and since then there has been sharp rise in good performances from Pakistan cricket teams across the board. The new cricket chief is neither a former Test star nor a cricket expert but his arrival has boosted the moral of Pakistan cricketers in general and Pakistan teams in particular. Since he took over the reins of a struggling national cricket entity, the graph of Pakistan teams is on the rise.
Within the days of his arrival at the PCB headquarters at Gaddafi Stadium, Pakistan won the Super Sixes Championship in Hong Kong, then won the home Test Series 1-0 against Sri Lanka at neutral venue in the UAE and almost whitewashed the Islanders, who were the finalists of World cup, by 4-1 in the ODI series. Pakistan’s women’s cricket team, against all expectations, succeeded in earning a berth in the next Women’s World Cup.
The other big achievement for Pakistan cricket was elevation of Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal to the top of the ODI ranking. It is a huge achievement considering that Pakistan does not get international matches as often as other teams do. Ajmal is the second Pakistani cricketer who had earned the unique honour. Last time when any Pakistani had occupied that place was pacer Waqar Younis many years ago. The other positive that the arrival of new chief has brought to Pakistan cricket was successful negotiations that Zaka Ashraf had conducted with the Indian and Bangladesh boards with the aim to break the international isolation that Pakistan had been suffering for the last five years due to security concerns of the visiting teams.

It is too early to count the chickens but the negotiations had progressed positively between Pakistan and its neighbours. It seems that the day is not far when one of the two teams will visit Pakistan.
Bangladesh had already shown interest in playing in Pakistan provided the ICC give them the assurance that.the security situation in Pakistan was not that alarming in this country as it was three years ago.
As a former banker, Zaka knows the art of negotiations. He had little ego to show when it comes to cricket. Like a good banker, he believes in achieving results.

His simplicity in discussion and negotiations has proved more effective than the smart ideas of those who had held the positions in the near past. If Pakistan women’s team win the qualifying round in Banlgadesh, it would be a great achievement from a team which only a few months ago was mercilessly thrashed by the host West Indies.