Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,825
Director Cricket Operations PCB Haroon Rasheed reviews the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2017-2018
Cricket balls
Since 8-10 years, there was a lot of talk about the quality of cricket balls used in the QeA Trophy. The balls were inferior and the ball would have to be changed 3-4 times during a match and players were unsatisfied. People were talking about Kookaburra balls etc. We spoke to our Dukes ball suppliers in England and convinced them to prepare a ball which is suited to conditions in Pakistan. There have been lots of positive reports about the balls. They stay hard and retain shine. Obviously it's a new ball so if pitches were responsive then batsmen weren't able to cope with it but overall, they were good.
Areas of concern
When the tournament finishes, we get reports and feedback. At the end of every match, captains, umpires and match referees send in reports so when we review those, we will know what are the concerning matters. However, already the departmental and regional teams' managers and coaches are satisfied specially with the condition of the balls. We spoke to Mickey about this and he also said we should stick to this ball and then in later stages, we'll also start using this ball for our home series and that's a positive sign.
Regarding a few of the pitches which have received criticism with 2-3 matches finishing early, we have assessed the complaints. It must be remembered that our pitches have all been relaid before the season and normally they take a bit of time to settle down. Due to this and the fact that we had to start the QeA Trophy a bit early due to CPL etc., there were problems for a few rounds. There were good contests between batsmen and bowlers and we found out that there were many players who weren't technically equipped to play the seaming ball.
Another good thing is that ball tampering has finished as you can't tamper with this ball anymore which is a very good thing. This is a very good sign. Previously, after 10-15 overs the ball would be tampered with and it would start reversing so there are many positives.
Criteria for making pitches
People who talk about this should realise that in our country, four-day cricket is only played at a few special centres where the pitches are standardised. People talk about Hyderabad; there, hardly 3-4 FC matches are held in a year. So when four-day matches aren't being played there and you try and make a pitch for just four days, you need to leave grass on it. The weather also changed suddenly before the last match. It became cold and damp and that probably resulted in the low scores we saw in the last match. When I saw video footage of these matches, however, the batsmen did not appear to be technically equipped. When we go outside Pakistan, we get testing wickets sometimes and other times ideal pitches for batting. So you need to adapt.
There are 2-3 grounds here where there were low scores but you need to look at the other side also. In some matches, the team made comebacks in the third innings and also chased runs in the fourth innings. This shows that the level of competition was such that teams can make a comeback at any time which was a positive sign. Instead of questioning domestic pitches, coaches should be asked about batsmen who aren't equipped to play in different conditions. It's a matter of session to session. If you give a bowler wickets, he'll bowl a long spell otherwise he will have to be changed. There's 2-3 bowlers in a team who are wicket-takers so if you play out four overs of theirs without giving wickets, you can survive. So these are tactical and technical issues which I think coaches need to work on.
Draft selection
Before the draft concept was introduced, I felt that there were a few teams like Karachi and Lahore which had a wealth of good players available. There might be 40-50 players available in Karachi but if 20 were picked then the other 20-30 would lose out. So other regions who aren't so rich in talent can pick them instead so that the human resource is spread out and the teams are balanced. However, I think when regions selected their teams, they probably didn't work on combinations properly. We took this out of our hands and let the regional coaches and teams handle it and if they couldn't make a good team and pick good players, then they should be questioned. It was a good experience and obviously until you don't try something new, you won't know what the results are like. We'll review the process and see what the pluses and negatives are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-0fJY9SFN8
Cricket balls
Since 8-10 years, there was a lot of talk about the quality of cricket balls used in the QeA Trophy. The balls were inferior and the ball would have to be changed 3-4 times during a match and players were unsatisfied. People were talking about Kookaburra balls etc. We spoke to our Dukes ball suppliers in England and convinced them to prepare a ball which is suited to conditions in Pakistan. There have been lots of positive reports about the balls. They stay hard and retain shine. Obviously it's a new ball so if pitches were responsive then batsmen weren't able to cope with it but overall, they were good.
Areas of concern
When the tournament finishes, we get reports and feedback. At the end of every match, captains, umpires and match referees send in reports so when we review those, we will know what are the concerning matters. However, already the departmental and regional teams' managers and coaches are satisfied specially with the condition of the balls. We spoke to Mickey about this and he also said we should stick to this ball and then in later stages, we'll also start using this ball for our home series and that's a positive sign.
Regarding a few of the pitches which have received criticism with 2-3 matches finishing early, we have assessed the complaints. It must be remembered that our pitches have all been relaid before the season and normally they take a bit of time to settle down. Due to this and the fact that we had to start the QeA Trophy a bit early due to CPL etc., there were problems for a few rounds. There were good contests between batsmen and bowlers and we found out that there were many players who weren't technically equipped to play the seaming ball.
Another good thing is that ball tampering has finished as you can't tamper with this ball anymore which is a very good thing. This is a very good sign. Previously, after 10-15 overs the ball would be tampered with and it would start reversing so there are many positives.
Criteria for making pitches
People who talk about this should realise that in our country, four-day cricket is only played at a few special centres where the pitches are standardised. People talk about Hyderabad; there, hardly 3-4 FC matches are held in a year. So when four-day matches aren't being played there and you try and make a pitch for just four days, you need to leave grass on it. The weather also changed suddenly before the last match. It became cold and damp and that probably resulted in the low scores we saw in the last match. When I saw video footage of these matches, however, the batsmen did not appear to be technically equipped. When we go outside Pakistan, we get testing wickets sometimes and other times ideal pitches for batting. So you need to adapt.
There are 2-3 grounds here where there were low scores but you need to look at the other side also. In some matches, the team made comebacks in the third innings and also chased runs in the fourth innings. This shows that the level of competition was such that teams can make a comeback at any time which was a positive sign. Instead of questioning domestic pitches, coaches should be asked about batsmen who aren't equipped to play in different conditions. It's a matter of session to session. If you give a bowler wickets, he'll bowl a long spell otherwise he will have to be changed. There's 2-3 bowlers in a team who are wicket-takers so if you play out four overs of theirs without giving wickets, you can survive. So these are tactical and technical issues which I think coaches need to work on.
Draft selection
Before the draft concept was introduced, I felt that there were a few teams like Karachi and Lahore which had a wealth of good players available. There might be 40-50 players available in Karachi but if 20 were picked then the other 20-30 would lose out. So other regions who aren't so rich in talent can pick them instead so that the human resource is spread out and the teams are balanced. However, I think when regions selected their teams, they probably didn't work on combinations properly. We took this out of our hands and let the regional coaches and teams handle it and if they couldn't make a good team and pick good players, then they should be questioned. It was a good experience and obviously until you don't try something new, you won't know what the results are like. We'll review the process and see what the pluses and negatives are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-0fJY9SFN8
