Comment: Revamped domestic structure is Pakistan's need of the hour
July 15, 2019
Pakistan cricket is additionally the beneficiary of Pakistan's most prominent expectations and dreams. Our team's notable inclination to leave the world with far-fetched, flighty unpredictable successes is not less than a miracle ability.
Pakistan's capacity, much of the time, is to make watching cricket a mindboggling experience.
Our team's long-standing convention of rehashing the game and considering new ideas moves the fantasy that, regardless of how terrible things are, the Pakistan team has the ability to turn things around.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is equipping to begin a major change in the local cricket structure of Pakistan by reducing the number of teams from 16 (departments) to six before the beginning of the new domestic cricket season from September.
The newly revamped domestic cricket structure will now feature six commonplace teams from the provinces of Pakistan. Two from Punjab (North and South) and one each from the Northern Areas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.
With little time left for the start of the new domestic season, the teams have to take some course which includes the addition of a 'known-worthy' batting coach, bowling coach, fielding coach, administration, transportation, hotelling, the arrangement of match officials and others to boost their teams.
Not only are the support staff essential for the team, but they will also add to the quality of cricket in Pakistan's domestic circuit.
The cricketers in our domestic circuit are extremely talented, however, due to a lack of support, they remain behind.
The quality of cricket is below par and so as the standard of grounds.
There is also a dominant culture of favouring the senior (aged 40+) players in the teams rather than giving chances to new and emerging talent. This special favour to the senior players creates obstacles for the new talent.
In denial of ageing and accepting the fact that they no more have a place on the playing field, the senior cricketers need to realise they can help the teams more by serving them as mentors.
In order to put forward their A-game, the PCB needs to work hard on A-team.
With four years till the next mega-tournament, it is high time the PCB starts working on the road to World Cup 2023 and for that, the cricket board needs to work on the domestic circuit.
At present, fans of the sport in Pakistan generally do not care about local cricket in the country. Creating awareness about the domestic season should be a top priority for the PCB local, not only in the country but beyond borders as well.
The Pakistan Super League (PSL) which was introduced in 2016 has done wonders for the cricket situation in Pakistan. Despite giving a platform to the new and upcoming stars, it fails to capitalise on their talent when the majority of them spend the season on the bench.
"Indian cricket has invested everything in first-class cricket not just in the last few years. In Pakistan, we’ve hardly done anything about our first-class system and change it every year. Our first-class cricket was run by a random journalist for some odd reason, I don’t know why", former Pakistan cricketer Wasim Akram said after Pakistan lost to arch-rivals India during the 2019 World Cup.
At the moment the team does not have many promising cricketers, sans Babar Azam. Now is the time to revamp the team and bring in new talent from the domestic circuit who have been performing well. It is the right time to say goodbye to the seniors and give others a chance.
The presence of departmental teams had made the domestic cricketers feel financially secure, however, now with the structure changed, it will be a daunting task to manage the teams proficiently.
Remembering Pakistan's powerlessness to make it through World Cup semi-finals, it is important the PCB pay special attention to a revamp in the structure of the domestic cricket to ease their road to the Cricket World Cup 2023.
