Blueprint for First-Class cricket in Pakistan

LordJames

Post of the Week winner
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Runs
1,012
Post of the Week
2
Sohaib Maqsood:

If we want to follow these Rank turners you will have to make 3,4 firstclass cricket centres where players play firstclass cricket there and you better choose batters from there if you need to change you can't pick batsmen facing Duke balls on Green tops and come to Test cricket and face this spin Spare of thoughts for Huraira

Rebuttal:

Absolutely disagree, because of many reasons but mainly:
  1. PCB is a volatile organization with a revolving door of Administrators & Coaches and when the next PCB Chairman comes along who is loyal to the next Government who hires a choice of a Coach with a different strategy to “Aaqib-ball”, what will PCB do, dig up the pitches and have them re-laid?​
  2. Relaying Pitches is expensive, and Pakistan doesn’t have the money to put their eggs in 1 basket.​
  3. What happens if in the next 5 years, we have 3-4 tall hit-the-deck-quicks & no promising spinners, relay the pitches again?​
  4. Which other Cricketing Nation, keeps on relaying pitches based on strategy of current coaches?​

Blue Print for Pitches:

Pakistan has been blessed with variance in climatic & soil conditions & advantage should be taken with different pitches and atmospheric conditions. Gawadar, Karachi, Lahore, Multan & Peshawar etc. have different characteristics and historically pitches have had their own characteristics e.g. Karachi (conducive to reverse swing), Rawalpindi with bounce and what is needed is to ensure that they are relayed/repaired while true to their original characteristics.

The FC season needs to be then planned to ensure that teams are rotated across the domestic grounds with variety of pitches, so they gain the experience which is vital for both bowlers and batsmen.
A-Tours:
Augment the experience of playing across diverse and different venues domestically with multiple A-Tours in a year, where the top domestic players gain more experience in diverse conditions.

Duke vs kookaburra?

This is a little bit of forward thinking but PCB can look at the International Schedule for the next 2-3 cycles, study the conditions and the ball and tailor their FC cycle accordingly to use for example 80% kookaburra & 20% Duke.​

Data Analytics:

There is a gap in Pakistan Domestic Data Analytics and stats & players should be identified with not just Runs/SR but WHERE they scored them.

Same for Bowlers, wickets/economy & WHERE they performed.​

If the ball strategy is implemented then WHICH ball was used can also be taken into consideration.


Horses for Courses Selection Policy:

All of the above isn't very expensive but will make selection relatively easier and PCB will have a pool of players to select for a given tour based on the prevalent conditions at home or abroad.
How to prepare?
Just like all other teams do!

Your domestic Cricket is now as diverse as possible so your practice sessions should now be as meticulously planned as possible. In order to practice batting on "rank turners", rig your Nets (scratch/damage the batting areas to simulate rough and then get them bone dry) and then make batsmen bat for hours with multiple bowlers.

It is clear that current Batsmen are not reading the bowl out of the bowlers hand and the only way to learn it is to make them face different bowlers in the Nets for hours on end.

Batsmen also need to learn to play spin LATE and again, the only way to do is to play in the Nets for hours.

In order to prepare for fast bouncy conditions, prepare the Net (with marble slab or whatever) and make them practice against different bowlers & even reduce the length of the pitch to simulate pace.

How do you think that Australia prepare when they tour India for turning pitches?

Bowling machines or Cricket Ball Throwers DO NOT teach how to read the delivery from the bowler's hands.
 
Don’t turn fc pitches to dust bowls else most fc sides will pick 3-4 spinners and the talent pool for pacers will reduce dramatically all this obsession with dust bowls will turn Pakistan in to Bangladesh 2000-2010
 
Long back in 2001 before coming to India Matthew Hayden went to backyard scruffed up the surface on both sides and practiced sweep shot. Tendulkar before touring Australia prepared by facing wet tennis ball from 15 yards (instead of 22 yards). Changing the pitches everywhere in the country to adher to this short term solution is like burning your house for cociroaches.
 
Long back in 2001 before coming to India Matthew Hayden went to backyard scruffed up the surface on both sides and practiced sweep shot. Tendulkar before touring Australia prepared by facing wet tennis ball from 15 yards (instead of 22 yards). Changing the pitches everywhere in the country to adher to this short term solution is like burning your house for cociroaches.
How is it a short-term solution though? Pakistan simply does not have the fast-bowlers in their system capable of winning matches at home or overseas. But Pakistan does have the spinners capable of winning matches at home and in spin-friendly conditions. If anything, its a decision based on ground realities.

The last time Pakistan employed a similar strategy, it led to an 7 year unbeaten run in their adopted home and arguably the greatest period for Pakistani test cricket in the 21st century.
 
How is it a short-term solution though? Pakistan simply does not have the fast-bowlers in their system capable of winning matches at home or overseas. But Pakistan does have the spinners capable of winning matches at home and in spin-friendly conditions. If anything, its a decision based on ground realities.

The last time Pakistan employed a similar strategy, it led to an 7 year unbeaten run in their adopted home and arguably the greatest period for Pakistani test cricket in the 21st century.

Pakistan not having "fast bowlers" is not equivalent to having Pakistan having Shane warne, Muralitharan. This Noman being mediocre till he was 38 years old suddenly look potent ? I mean these conditions are not just alien to visitors. These are alien for pakistani batsmen too. They cannot get better simply by playing on these surface more. They will get worse. ON tricky surfaces like this your only option is to go on the offensive. Basically it makes your batting a lottery.
 
Dubai pitches were nothing like these pitches. There were a lot of high scoring games there as well. Sohaib malik made 245 there for heavensake.

388978.6.jpg
 
Pakistan not having "fast bowlers" is not equivalent to having Pakistan having Shane warne, Muralitharan. This Noman being mediocre till he was 38 years old suddenly look potent ? I mean these conditions are not just alien to visitors. These are alien for pakistani batsmen too. They cannot get better simply by playing on these surface more. They will get worse. ON tricky surfaces like this your only option is to go on the offensive. Basically it makes your batting a lottery.
I'm talking more about the general idea rather than specific pitches. The pitches in this series definitely did go a little too far, but the pitches in the England series had enough where runs could be scored if you applied yourself. Lottery pitches always come with a degree of unpredictability and I agree that those types of pitches are not conducive as a long-term strategy. But spin-friendly pitches definitely should be the blueprint for Pakistan going forward, they want to win at home.

Noman was mediocre? How? His FC numbers demonstrate that he has been a very good performer. Just because you don't get selected doesn't mean you are mediocre. He has won Pakistan a test match in Sri Lanka too so he isn't exactly a home-track bully either. Had hey been given a debut earlier maybe he could have even taken far more wickets by this age.
 
I'm talking more about the general idea rather than specific pitches. The pitches in this series definitely did go a little too far, but the pitches in the England series had enough where runs could be scored if you applied yourself. Lottery pitches always come with a degree of unpredictability and I agree that those types of pitches are not conducive as a long-term strategy. But spin-friendly pitches definitely should be the blueprint for Pakistan going forward, they want to win at home.

Noman was mediocre? How? His FC numbers demonstrate that he has been a very good performer. Just because you don't get selected doesn't mean you are mediocre. He has won Pakistan a test match in Sri Lanka too so he isn't exactly a home-track bully either. Had hey been given a debut earlier maybe he could have even taken far more wickets by this age.
England pitches were not exactly great pitches either. Only reason it looked "better" because England had mediocre spinners and were unprepared. There were concerted effort to make the pitch as dry as possible. Also being an used pitch there were a lot of cracks. Not sure UAE pitches were like that. Also it is very hard to prepare pitch just enough to suit Pakistan bowlers. It won't work. Opposition will have pace attack as well in addition to spin to knock over Paksitan. Pakistan will totally rely on spin.


Wrt UAE Yasir shah being a wristy is a better option. Also Saeed was not banned then. Even Ajmal averaged 26.

As a comparison

Pakistan bowlers performance

UAE

Pace bowlers average 209 wickets @33
Spin bowlers average 327 wickets @28

Last 4 tests in Pakistan

Pace bowlers average 2 wickets @42
Spin bowlers average 78 wickets@17

This is fairly lopsided. There is zero balance between pace and spin. In UAE spin looked more potent. But not by much.So this is not a legit comparison.This is not UAE strategy. This is more like Mirpur strategy. Atleast bangladesh had more than 2 good spinners to make use of it. Pakistan essentially relies on 2 spinners.
 
Back
Top