Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Prime Minister and patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has rejected calls for reviving departmental cricket in the country. In a brief meeting at Khan’s residence, a delegation that included Misbah-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali and Mohammad Hafeez, made a bid to change the premier’s mind about the new structure, which has already cost over 400 cricketers their jobs, but could make no headway with Khan insisting that the new regional model was “the right way”.
The cricketers who met Khan cited the reduced earnings for players under the new model, as well as the reduced opportunities for younger cricketers to pick up the game.
“The new structure didn’t make any difference from its first year (2019) to the second (2020), which has been affected by Covid-19 too,” one member of the delegation said. “The pipeline of cricketers coming into the system has been drying up. We understand that Imran Khan has a point about having competitive cricket in Pakistan, but you cannot implement this in one go, without giving an alternative to cricketers.”
However, Khan stuck to his stand, and said he had convinced the cricketers “with great difficulty” that the new structure needed time.
“I have convinced with great difficulty Misbah, Hafeez and Azhar that the new cricket structure must be allowed to grow and become strong,” Khan said later. “I told them that every new system had its teething problems and it takes some time but I can assure you once it is established, it will ensure the raw talent we have in cricket will come through polished and groomed for international cricket.”
He added that whatever success Pakistan had so far was in spite of the old system, and not because of it.
“I am hopeful that we will be able in a position to field a very strong team for the next World Cup and do well in it thanks to this new system,” he said. “Despite this system we won because of the immense raw talent we have. Nowhere does a player graduate straight into the national team from junior or club level cricket.”
ALSO READ: “We need departmental cricket back in Pakistan” – Umar Gul
Alongside the three cricketers, the delegation included PCB chairman Ehsan Mani, chief executive Wasim Khan, the COO Salman Naseer and Wasim Akram, in his capacity as a PCB cricket committee member.
Khan had been a strong advocate for a domestic structure with only regional sides instead of departmental sides for much of his playing career too, wanting Pakistan to adopt a structure similar to Australia’s Shield cricket. Since becoming Prime Minister, a position that automatically makes him the patron of the PCB, Khan set about putting his ideas in place. He instructed Mani to restructure the domestic model with six regional teams in the system, which would be the only feeder for the national team. The decision effectively ended the role that departmental cricket had since the 1970s, but it also saw 400 cricketers lose their livelihoods because they had held jobs with departments only by virtue of playing for those teams. The PCB offered contracts to only 192 cricketers, apart from match officials. For many those contracts are much lower value than what departments were paying cricketers, where they often benefited from other perks.
“Despite this system we won because of the immense raw talent we have. Nowhere does a player graduate straight into the national team from junior or club level cricket.”
IMRAN KHAN, ON PAKISTAN’S OLD CRICKET STRUCTURE
ESPNcricinfo understands the meeting was also marred by PCB officials contradicting players and not letting discussions flow smoothly. One of the players told ESPNcricinfo that Khan asked for patience with the new model, saying that Khan argued that such “transition” was always going to be difficult, but that for the national side to benefit, there needed to be competitive domestic cricket. No successful model in other cricket playing countries, Khan said, has departments (or corporate teams) playing at the highest level in domestic cricket. Khan also argued that players’ development stopped once they got jobs with departments, because the security bred complacency.
The new structure is meant to empower the six province associations to operate from the grassroots level to the domestic level, and they will be responsible for regulating club, city and regional cricket. But while sound on paper, it’s not been easy to implement the new model in practice. Clubs that were supposed to be registered under the new model haven’t been, while players have played for the clubs for the past 18 months in a kind of vacuum – with the old structure gone and without the new structure in place.
Domestic cricket in Pakistan has been played among departments and regions for nearly 50 years, starting in the early 1970s, when Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistan’s first Test captain and then PCB chairman, encouraged organisations like Habib Bank Limited, Sui Southern Gas Corporation, Water and Power Development Authority and others to provide employment opportunities for players. With the new model, most departments have already suspended contracts they had with cricketers. Those who were permanent employees were asked to pick desk jobs, effectively ending their cricketing aspirations. These were players hired mainly for their cricketing skills, and given their lack of qualifications for other jobs, they have had to pick non-executive jobs with lesser pay.
Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed!
Extremely helpful info particularly the last part 🙂
I care for such info much. I was looking for this particular information for a long
time. Thank you and best of luck.
Look at my web blog: http://ilregalopreferito.com/healthy-eating-dos-and-donts
My spouse and i were now joyous that Raymond could finish up his survey while using the precious
recommendations he grabbed out of the web page.
It is now and again perplexing to simply possibly be releasing tips which
usually some other people have been selling. So we grasp we now have
the blog owner to thank for this. The explanations
you’ve made, the easy blog menu, the relationships you can give support to
instill – it’s mostly astounding, and it’s assisting our son in addition to our family know that this article is enjoyable, which is certainly
quite serious. Thank you for all the pieces!
My site: http://fpvgadgets.com/forums/users/kristenbou
I consider something genuinely interesting about your
blog so I saved to fav.
Here is my web blog – https://bbs.yunweishidai.com
sildenafil cost uk https://eunicesildenafilcitrate.com/ sildenafil 50mg prices
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is required to get setup?
I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very web smart so I’m not 100% sure. Any suggestions or advice would
be greatly appreciated. Many thanks
Also visit my website johnsonclassifieds.com
I went over this web site and I conceive you have a lot of
wonderful information, saved to my bookmarks (:.
Look at my web site; http://makershd.com/groups/muscle-building-simplified-3-ordinary-to-foods-to-build-muscle/
Wow, amazing blog structure! How long have you been running
a blog for? you made blogging glance easy. The overall
glance of your website is fantastic, as smartly as the content!
Here is my web page – http://www.hit-forum.info
Hi there to all, it’s really a fastidious for me to visit
this web site, it consists of important Information.
Check out my blog post; http://www.theezentrepreneur.com/
I would like to express my thanks to you just for bailing me out of this particular incident.
Because of exploring through the world-wide-web and meeting recommendations which were not powerful, I assumed my life was over.
Being alive without the presence of approaches to the difficulties you have sorted out by means of your main site is a crucial case, as well as
the ones which may have in a negative way damaged my career if I had not discovered your web blog.
Your own know-how and kindness in maneuvering a lot of things was helpful.
I’m not sure what I would’ve done if I had not come upon such
a step like this. I am able to now look forward to my future.
Thanks for your time so much for the professional and amazing guide.
I will not hesitate to recommend the blog to anyone who would need support about this
issue.
Here is my webpage – centerforsew.com
Howdy very cool blog!! Man .. Excellent .. Superb .. I will bookmark your site
and take the feeds additionally? I am happy to find so many useful
info right here in the submit, we need work out more techniques on this
regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
Here is my blog post :: http://www.funkyfreeads.com/user/profile/409477
Thank you for sharing your info. I truly appreciate your efforts and I am waiting for your further post thanks once again.
Feel free to visit my page: nila.n4mative.com
Hey would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re using?
I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different internet browsers
and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most.
Can you suggest a good hosting provider at a reasonable price?
Many thanks, I appreciate it!
Here is my web-site: groovelineentertainment.com
Greetings! Very useful advice within this post! It is the little changes that will make the most important changes.
Thanks for sharing!
My page – http://www.affiliateclassifiedads.com/user/profile/263817
With havin so much content do you ever run into any problems
of plagorism or copyright violation? My website has
a lot of exclusive content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but
it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without
my authorization. Do you know any ways to help protect against content from being ripped off?
I’d definitely appreciate it.
my web site: Lashay
I have been exploring for a bit for any high quality articles
or blog posts in this sort of space . Exploring
in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this site. Studying this information So i’m glad to express that I’ve a very
excellent uncanny feeling I came upon exactly what I needed.
I so much undoubtedly will make sure to don’t disregard this site
and provides it a glance on a relentless basis.
Here is my homepage; http://coursebuddy.meltdowndesigner.com/
Good web site! I really love how it is easy on my eyes and the data are well written.
I am wondering how I could be notified whenever a new post has been made.
I have subscribed to your RSS feed which must do the trick!
Have a great day!
Feel free to visit my homepage mintjasia.com
Hello! This post could not be written any better! Reading
through this post reminds me of my previous room mate!
He always kept chatting about this. I will forward
this page to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read.
Thanks for sharing!
my homepage :: https://geegram.net/DCPPenni6823486404