Rule of consensus

Our institutional governance is becoming ever more messy and complex. It is rather unfortunate that in the arena of politics our parliament its dysfunctional thanks to our leaders. Our accountability institution has become highly politicised, despite claims to the contrary, and now our sports institution has also come under the clouds because of its present governance practices. A recent meeting of the PCB was marred by rebellion by a majority of the board members. What went wrong? As reported, the primary reason for this was the attitude of the chairman of the BoG. It is reported that he was taking decisions without due consultation with the board.

If our institutional leaders fail to adopt democratic norms in their decision-making, we will not be able to create sustainable institutions. The PCB is no exception to this. One hopes that in the interest of cricket in the country, cricket decisions will now be based on consensus. Let us accept that whenever we plan changes in the working of an institution, it is always desirable to take the team on board; otherwise, the changes will never be implementable.

Dr Zafar I Qureshi

Lahore