Najam Sethi wants to make domestic cricket stronger like PSL

Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) management committee, Najam Sethi, has said that the basic agenda of the governing body is to bring reforms into domestic cricket and make it a big brand like the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

In a massive development on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved Sethi as chairman of the cricket's governing body, replacing Ramiz Raja.

A 14-member committee, headed by Sethi, was established by the government, which is led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), to oversee PCB operations for 120 days prior to the 2014 constitution's election period.

In an interaction with media in Lahore, the former PCB chairman said: "In the next 3-4 months, we will make the necessary changes on the ground to revive departmental and regional cricket. The board will be made of elected representatives from four departments and each number of regions, alongside two nominees from the prime minister. There will then be elections, and the board will function as it used to. This is our agenda, which is for domestic cricket reform."

Sethi said making Pakistan's domestic cricket is a big challenge.

"We need to fix our domestic cricket structure. In the last four years, there's been a famine. How many new players domestic cricket has provided to the national team in the last four years? It looks like the PSL is supplying cricketers because very few are coming through from domestic cricket, and even if they do, they don't get enough chances. This is a big challenge for us. Just as we made PSL a big international brand, we also need to make domestic cricket stronger," he said.

Talking about New Zealand's upcoming tour for the Test series, he said that the committee hopes for the series to happen in a good atmosphere.

"I just want to say that a cricket team has been announced for the series. I don't know whether it's appropriate or not to make changes. We will discuss and see; we haven't made any decision yet," he added.

Pakistan are scheduled to take on New Zealand in first Test match, starting on December 26 at the National Bank Cricket Arena.

The second Test between the two sides will be staged at the Multan Cricket Stadium from January 3 to 7.

After the conclusion of the Test series, the Black Caps will play three ODIs from January 10 to 14 in Karachi.