The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) named former captain Shahid Afridi as the interim chief of the National Selection Committee last week. Afridi’s appointment came in the midst of wide-range changes in the Pakistan cricket set-up, that included the removal of the Ramiz Raja as the chairman. A 14-member committee, headed by Najam Sethi, has been appointed to run the affairs of the game for the next four months.

The Pakistan government, through a notification last week, removed Raja following the national team’s 3-0 whitewash by England in the Test series. The notification, issued by Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, has to be approved by the federal cabinet, which is just a formality.

Now, Sethi has opened up on the reason behind selecting Afridi as the chief selector.

“Shahid (Afridi) is a busy man. We persuaded him after a lot of effort. I am very grateful that he agreed. He understood there was need to do the job. Shahid is very aggressive, dynamic. His approach is very upfront, he played with a lot of passion. We also need to do the same,” Najam Sethi said in an interview uploaded on Pakistan Cricket’s YouTube channel.

“There will be losses and wins in a game. But we cannot go forward with a timid approach. We don’t how many bowlers to play. We thought batting was an issue, but on these (Pakistan’s) pitches bowling is also an issue. Keeping that in mind we though Shahid is the best man. And some of the changes that has been done, like bringing in Sarfaraz Ahmed (for the second Test against New Zealand).”

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