The Cricket Management Committee overseeing the affairs of the Cricket Board of Directors is expected to take a final decision on this regulation within the next few days, following the recent signing of several Pakistani team players and officials by two agencies.
Upon discovering that Talha Rahmani and his company, Saya, represented 7-8 prominent Pakistani players and officials, including Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan, the PCB became aware of the existence of another agency, the International Cricketers Association (ICA). He has signed contracts with several players and officials currently touring Australia.
Concerned about this development, PCB Chairman Zacchaeus Ashraf He instructed the legal department to draft new regulations to vet agents/companies before engaging players and officials. The goal is to limit the number of clients they can represent at any given time Pakistan cricket.
ICA reportedly counts Sarfaraz Ahmed, Imam ul Haq, Saim Ayub, Muhammad Haris, Naseem Shah, Abdullah Shafiq, Osama Mir, Aamir Jamal and Muhammad Hasnain among its clients. Notably, Pakistan team manager Mohammad Hafeez was associated with ICA until recently.
Despite Hafeez’s resignation, it has emerged that the national team’s bowling coach Omar Gul, bowling coach Saeed Ajmal, batting consultant Adam Holyoake and the team’s strength and conditioning coach and national selector Kamran Akmal are also part of the ICA’s clients.
Zakka Ashraf has consistently expressed concerns in his interviews about having one agent or company with a large number of players under its umbrella, which could have undue influence in team selection and affairs.
In a recently leaked audio chat, Ashraf mentioned that when PCB offered Babar Azam the captaincy after the ODI World Cup, he consulted his agent Talha Rehman, who advised him to give up the captaincy in all three formats.
“These agents basically have a lot of influence and power in the team through their agents and we are trying to deal with that,” he was heard saying in the leaked audio recording.
The PCB acknowledged the resignation of Nizamul Haq as chief selector after launching an investigation into allegations that the former captain co-owned a sports marketing company with Rizwan and Rahmani.
The purpose of the investigation was to ascertain whether Inzamam’s involvement with the company constituted a conflict of interest, given his status as a paid employee on the board. But the investigation ended suddenly after the board confirmed that Inzamam’s resignation had been accepted.