Former Afghanistan all-rounder Mirwais Ashraf has been appointed the new acting chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board. He replaces Azizullah Fazli, who had been appointed only four months ago replacing Farhan Yusufzai who fled the country after the regime change. Thus Ashraf has become the third acting chairman of the board in only four months.
Hasan Akhund, patron-in-chief of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and the acting prime minister of the country appointed Ashraf at his post through a direct notice issued earlier this week
Ashraf, who is considered one of the early players to popularise the game alongside Afghan cricket legends such as Mohammad Nabi and Asghar Afghan, made his international debut in 2009 and featured in 46 ODIs and 25 T20Is for the country which includes being a part of two T20 World Cup campaigns in 2010 and 2014 and an ODI World Cup campaign in 2015.
The reason behind the new change is because the ruling regime wants someone capable of speaking out his mind at ICC meetings and also getting rid of the malfunctions in the system.
"The government is trying to bring in more competent people with expertise in technical aspects of the game - commercial, business and marketing. If Afghanistan can produce world-class players with this broken system back home then imagine what they can do with a competent board.,” a director in the board was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo.