Shaharyar Khan, cricket diplomat and PCB's man of transition
Both Shaharyar Khan’s tenures at the head of the PCB are not only fondly remembered but left significant footprints on the game in Pakistan
Osman Samiuddin23-Mar-2024Shaharyar Khan, the influential former PCB chairman, has died in Lahore. He was 89 years old.Shaharyar, a career diplomat, had two stints as the PCB boss, first between 2003 and 2006, and then from 2014 to 2017. He was also a manager of the Pakistan team on two occasions, including on the path-breaking tour of India in 1999.Mohsin Naqvi, the current PCB chair, said, “On behalf of the PCB, I express my deep condolences and grief over the passing of former chairman Shaharyar Khan. He was a fine administrator and served Pakistan cricket with utmost dedication.”Pakistan cricket will stay indebted to the late Shaharyar Khan for his commendable role as head of the board and for his services in the growth and development of the game in the country.”Shaharyar was a very prominent and important figure who contributed hugely to the development of the game over many years.”His experience as a diplomat helped him lead cricket administration very skillfully in Pakistan and he was also a respected member of the ICC Board,” ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement. “On behalf of the ICC, I would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends as well as to our colleagues at the PCB.”Both Shaharyar’s tenures at the head of the board are not only fondly remembered but left significant footprints on the game in Pakistan. The first time he took over, from General Tauqir Zia in December 2003, his immediate task was to steer the game through the end of a troubled transition of the gifted but tainted stars of the ’90s.
His grounding as an established diplomat helped pull off one of the most memorable series of this century soon after, when India visited Pakistan for a full tour for the first time since 1989-90. That series sparked off a period of cooperation and normalised ties between the two sides
His grounding as an established diplomat helped pull off one of the most memorable series of this century soon after, when India visited Pakistan for a full tour for the first time since 1989-90. That series sparked off a period of cooperation and normalised ties between the two sides.Not only did they tour and play in each country on an annual basis for the next three years, alongside Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the boards put together a successful bid to co-host the 2011 World Cup. That bid, in 2006, was, arguably, the last time the game’s subcontinent members threw their weight about as a cohesive unit, securing an extension to the deadline for their bid and denying a rival bid from Australia and New Zealand. The IPL was born two years later, fuelling the BCCI’s rise as the sole dominant force in the game.Despite being a cricket purist, it was under Shaharyar’s first stint that Pakistan’s first T20 tournament was staged, the wildly successful and popular ABN-AMRO Twenty20 Cup – now known as the National T20 Cup. Shaharyar wasn’t especially fond of the format, but he recognised its potential to expand the game’s commercial base. He also oversaw what was until then the most lucrative broadcast deal the PCB had signed, not only for Pakistan’s international games but also domestic tournaments.That helped to implement a central contracts system for the national team, for the first time ever. Most significantly for the men’s team, Shaharyar’s first year in charge brought the late Bob Woolmer as head coach. It set off a brief period where Pakistan were battling for the title of the second-best Test side in the world behind Australia, having beaten England, India and Sri Lanka in three consecutive Test series across 2005-06.The tenure ended on a sour note, however, with the ball-tampering fiasco and subsequent Oval Test forfeit. Months later, Shaharyar was replaced by Nasim Ashraf and, perhaps tellingly, Pakistan spiralled into a period of turbulence unlike any witnessed before. It culminated with the country banished as a host venue after the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankans and a corruption scandal in 2010.Shaharyar’s second stint was, in some ways, a course correction to what had gone wrong since he had left. It had, initially, similarly soothing effects. His arrival ended a paralysing period where the board leadership, mired in court cases, switched back and forth between Zaka Ashraf and Najam Sethi.Shaharyar Khan wasn’t especially fond of the format, but he recognised its potential to expand the game’s commercial base•PCBThe effects were immediate. The following year, in May 2015, Zimbabwe became the first country to tour Pakistan since the 2009 attacks, the first step in the gradual return of the international game to the country.The following year, a franchise T20 league – the PSL – finally took off, after years and years of prevarication and failed attempts stretching back to 2008. By then, however, Sethi, who had stayed on as a de facto CEO, was the driving administrative force and Shaharyar a quieter, more paternalistic overseer of affairs. When he stepped down in August 2017, it was primarily due to health reasons; he was 83 by then.Cricket had long been a part of his life – Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, the former India captain, was his cousin – but it was only one part of a distinguished career in the civil service. He served as Pakistan’s foreign secretary between 1990 and 1994, as their ambassador to Jordan and France, as well as the Pakistan high commissioner to the UK.That his life extended far beyond the game is evidenced in his prolific authorship, which included a history of his home state Bhopal – – and a book about the Rwandan genocide – – where he was posted as a UN special representative. He also wrote a biography of his mother Princess Abida Sultan, called .His attachment to the game and how he saw it as more than just a game, however, endured through three books. The first, , was a manager’s diary of Pakistan’s 1998-99 tour to India, amidst historic peace-making overtures between the two countries and the Kargil war. He also co-authored a history of India-Pakistan cricket with Shashi Tharoor, . His last book, , co-authored with his son Ali, was arguably his most impressive, a sprawling political, cultural and societal history of Pakistan through the prism of cricket.