Najam Sethi, the chair of the PCB Management Committee, has decided to step back from the race for the chairmanship of the PCB chairman as an extension to the interim committee’s tenure ended on Monday

“Salaam everyone! I don’t want to be a bone of contention between Asif Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif,” he said in a tweet after midnight, on Tuesday. “Such instability and uncertainty is not good for PCB.”

Sethi and former PCB chief Zaka Ashraf were the two candidates for the coveted slot, which could only be filled after the nod of PCB’s Patron-in-Chief, the prime minister.

Under the circumstances, Sethi added that he was not a candidate for the chairmanship of the national cricket board. “Good luck to all stakeholders.”

Earlier this month, Sethi called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while Ashraf met with Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Ehsanur Rehman Mazari as the deadline to hold elections for the top slot ended.

Zaka has the support of the Pakistan Peoples Party while Sethi is the candidate for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, media reported on June 8.

The patron is the competent authority to appoint two members of the Board of Governors of PCB and traditionally, the prime minister’s nominee has won the elections.

Sethi had the task to hold elections within four months after PM Shehbaz formed a 14-member interim body under him to run PCB affairs. But the elections were not held amid court cases that led to the extension of the committee’s tenure till June 20.

“Najam Sethi came to temporarily head the Interim Management Committee and only had one mandate to conduct elections in the cricket regions,” IPC Minister Ehsanur Rehman Mazari said in an interview on Dawn News programme Doosra Rukh on June 18.

“Sethi became a candidate for the PCB chairman on his own, which amounted to a conflict of interest when he was given a different mandate,” he said.

The minister claimed that there would be no extension for Sethi’s tenure and Zaka Ashraf would be the next PCB chairman, which he said was the wish of the PPP leadership.