Ehsan Mani appointed chairperson of powerful ICC committee

Pakistan Cricket Board's chairman Ehsan Mani has been appointed as the head of the ICC's influential Finance & Commercial Affairs committee.

The appointment was carried out during the International Cricket Council's annual conference last week.

The PCB announced on Tuesday that another PCB official, Salman Naseer, who is its general counsel and barrister, has been included on the ICC's Safeguarding panel.

The PCB said both appointments were made by ICC chairman Shashank Manohar.

The F&CA is one of the ICC's most important committees, assisting the organisation in discharging its responsibilities in relation to all financial and commercial matters.

The other members of this committee are Indra Nooyi (independent director), Amitabh Choudhury (BCCI acting secretary), Chris Nenzani (CSA president), Imran Khawaja (ICC vice-chairman), Earl Eddings (CA chairman) and Colin Graves (ECB chairman).

ICC chairman Shashank Manohar and ICC chief executive officer Manu Sawhney will also sit on the F&CA as ex-officio members.

The 74-year-old Mani, a chartered accountant by profession, was appointed as the ICC's first F&CA chairman in 1996 and served until 2002, negotiating the apex body's first-ever broadcast rights deal then worth approximately USD 550 million.

Mani, then, moved on to become ICC president until 2006 and was also instrumental in helping the it seal a USD 1.1 billion media rights deal with ESPN Star Sports for the 2007-15 cycle.

The veteran administrator said in a statement that he was grateful to the ICC chairman for the confidence he has reposed in him and looked forward to working with Sawhney and his team.

He has also been included in the ICC Audit Committee, which will be chaired by India's Yuvraj Narayan.