"I won't discard Inzamam's opinion as he is an expert on selection matters" : Najam Sethi

[MenInG]

Najam Sethi speaking on TV

"We had a discussion on whether the domestic cricket structure needs to be changed or not and there were various points of view on it"

"We developed a consensus on this issue and Haroon Rasheed will present a report on this in a day or two"

"There are 2 positions on this; One says do not change the structure, the other says that 2 more teams should be added to make 10 Regional and Departmental teams instead of 8 each"

"The Regional teams are saying that they develop players but Departments then take them away by paying them more money"

"This is why Departmental teams are stronger and Regional ones are weaker"

"In England the ball is seaming, swinging etc and you know our boys are used to playing on batting paradises"

"This is a big challenge for our boys so lets see how they cope with it in England"

"Those who are criticizing [selectors/Inzi] themselves have been selectors once and been criticized as well"

"They are no longer selectors so they are criticizing and I accept that it is their right to criticize" :

"Our team has had number one ranking in T20s, Test team has also been number one in previous 12 months but they did slide down in rankings in Tests and ODIs"

"Our coaches and selectors are doing a great job"

"If you say to me discard Inzamam's decisions, then I wont do that as he is the expert [on selection matters]"

"You are all free to criticize and push forward cases of your favourites"

 

[MenInG]

Cricket Board (PCB) Chief Najam Sethi is looking forward to remodel the domestic cricket structure in the country.

In an interview, the PCB chairman said regional cricket is important when it comes to preparing players and a plan is under way to pay a better stipend to first class players so that regions can keep producing good players.

According to him, there have been suggestions to expand the number of teams from eight to 10 while some have recommended no changes take place at all.

Speaking about team selection and the recent debate surrounding the exclusion of Fawad Alam from the national squad, Sethi said that he does not interfere in team selection. For him, chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq is an expert when it comes to team selection and he has no issues with his decisions.

On the upcoming tour of Pakistan cricket team of England and Ireland, Sethi said he is looking forward to Pakistan’s encounter against Ireland who will be applying their first ever test match.

However, the chairman was skeptical about the conditions in England, saying that the Pakistani batsmen will face problems over there.

https://www.brecorder.com/2018/05/0...emodel-structure-of-domestic-cricket/Pakistan

 

[AFM]

We don't need more teams. The pitches need to be of good standard and a proper home season needs to be established that isn't in early winter. Have regional teams only that are sponsored by departments.

 

[angrypathan]

Our board is run by idiots if they think the solution to our domestic cricket woes is to increase the number of teams

 

[Abdullah719]

"There are 2 positions on this; One says do not change the structure, the other says that 2 more teams should be added to make 10 Regional and Departmental teams instead of 8 each"

The only solution = Make it worse?

 

[MMHS]

I think, there are 18 regions - so, obviously, with 8 teams, PCB has an odd of 8 Vs 10 anti vote of confidence. Now, with 10 teams, it'll be favorable 10-8 : I didn't find any better logic than this, to be honest.

I thought, one of the biggest problems were too may teams - lots of games, but little quality, therefore instead of accumulating top talents, it's rather making competition lower. The politician Khan (he knows a bit cricket as well) also wrote it every time - he'll make whole PAK into 6 to 8 pieces and make the top tier almost as good as International level.

Therefore, this decision has served the 2nd purpose as well - challenging Imran Khan as a cricket illiterate.

 

[babajee]

I think, there are 18 regions - so, obviously, with 8 teams, PCB has an odd of 8 Vs 10 anti vote of confidence. Now, with 10 teams, it'll be favorable 10-8 : I didn't find any better logic than this, to be honest.

I thought, one of the biggest problems were too may teams - lots of games, but little quality, therefore instead of accumulating top talents, it's rather making competition lower. The politician Khan (he knows a bit cricket as well) also wrote it every time - he'll make whole PAK into 6 to 8 pieces and make the top tier almost as good as International level.

Therefore, this decision has served the 2nd purpose as well - challenging Imran Khan as a cricket illiterate.

Not in Pakistan though. We would have 6 teams full of Akmals, Butts, Iftikhars, Shans Cheemas, Guls.

 

[ArsenalFC]

RIP logic when you hear:

1. Increase no. of teams - it actually needs to be reduced as there are far too many as it is. Along with pitches you could argue this is one of the two most fundamental reasons why standard of domestic cricket is so poor since it is filled with too many mediocre and sub standard level cricketers who are not domestic level at all whether it be technically or due to their lack of fitness and other factors like nepotism and over aged cricketers posing as 25 year olds.

Increasing the teams deepens the cracks and makes the overall standard weaker because the talent pool decreases with further abundance of mediocrity.

2. "Pakistan wickets are batting paradise". This sums up the incompetence of Sethi and the rest of the board, when it is quite the opposite in FC games. You could argue ironically nowadays Pakistan is the hardest place to score when you consider domestic FC matches purely due to the under cooked wickets which seem to be reminiscent of the old era with uncovered pitches it must be said.

 

[DRsohail]

I think, there are 18 regions - so, obviously, with 8 teams, PCB has an odd of 8 Vs 10 anti vote of confidence. Now, with 10 teams, it'll be favorable 10-8 : I didn't find any better logic than this, to be honest.

I thought, one of the biggest problems were too may teams - lots of games, but little quality, therefore instead of accumulating top talents, it's rather making competition lower. The politician Khan (he knows a bit cricket as well) also wrote it every time - he'll make whole PAK into 6 to 8 pieces and make the top tier almost as good as International level.

Therefore, this decision has served the 2nd purpose as well - challenging Imran Khan as a cricket illiterate.

dont mention the legend here otherwise people will eat you alive.such a great man he is and was a great crickter but here najam seti says he knows cricket more than freat KHAN.

 

[MenInG]

Inzi could turn out to be the hero if Imam performs well.

The whole Inzi criticism thing is driven by Imam selection and Fawad Alam non selection - that's all there is to it

 

[ads101]

Inzi has been an excellent selector, he's picked a lot of good talent. No one rated Abbas and he ended up being our best test bowler. Also picks such as Babar, Hasan, Shadab, Fakhar (who I'm sure would be ignored for selection by some due to his technique), Fahim (who is the finished product but certainly talented). Picked good squads pretty much every series.

Imam has just showed in the kent game when everyone else failed. Also scored a century in ODIs. He's been prolific in U19 too. Gives the impression of a guy who is much better than his domestic stats, it's only the fact he's low on experience/young in age to why he's underperformed. I'm not sure he should have been picked so early, and would have liked it after he set alight domestic, but he's very young.

Fawad has been ignored for years by many different selectors. He is now not outperforming everyone else like he used to and on the older side. So Inzi has his reasons for not selecting him. Even then he was called up to the initial camp which is more than he's been given for years. His place in the squad was probably taken by Saad Ali who's younger and more prolific in domestic these days with better technique. Even if I would have included Fawad, I understand why he wasn't selected. It wasn't like before when our our batsmen were failing, little other batting talent, and Fawad was chucked out/ignored despite outperforming every one else.

 

[ads101]

I don't think adding more departmental teams will be detrimental. It's only 2 and it still means that players get a chance to play amongst the best in Pakistani domestic cricket. If we spread out the talent, maybe each team will be a bit weaker, but potentially more talent could be found.

What is worse is players pushing for the international squad playing in second division. It's hard to judge between the tiers, as they won't be facing the same batsmen/bowlers as first division.

I also don't think 10 teams is a lot given how big Pakistan is as a country. England have eight teams in division 1 and 10 in division 2, and difference strength between the divisions is more minimal. Pakistan probably just need more teams in division 1 at the highest stage to counteract that. I'm sure a lot of talented guys in lower divisions aren't getting the chance to play at the level they're capable of.

 

[Abdullah719]

I don't think adding more departmental teams will be detrimental. It's only 2 and it still means that players get a chance to play amongst the best in Pakistani domestic cricket. If we spread out the talent, maybe each team will be a bit weaker, but potentially more talent could be found.

What is worse is players pushing for the international squad playing in second division. It's hard to judge between the tiers, as they won't be facing the same batsmen/bowlers as first division.

I also don't think 10 teams is a lot given how big Pakistan is as a country. England have eight teams in division 1 and 10 in division 2, and difference strength between the divisions is more minimal. Pakistan probably just need more teams in division 1 at the highest stage to counteract that. I'm sure a lot of talented guys in lower divisions aren't getting the chance to play at the level they're capable of.

There's currently 8 Departmental + 8 Regional teams in QEA. That's 16. The proposal in OP, if I understand correctly, will increase that to 20.

 

[ads101]

There's currently 8 Departmental + 8 Regional teams in QEA. That's 16. The proposal in OP, if I understand correctly, will increase that to 20.

Ah misread. People are right that's too much most likely.

 

[MMHS]

Ah misread. People are right that's too much most likely.

The fundamental difference with ENG is that, they have 18 FC teams in 2 divisions, means entire ENG’s top cricketers are distributed in 18 teams and around 350 top cricketers compete each other, in 2 divisions. Still too many teams (compared that to AUS has 6, but Poms population is 3 times as well).

Here, 16 or 20 teams doesn’t matter, major flaw is that top players are not accumulated- rather spread out. With 3.5 times population than ENG, obviously it’s even more tougher for PAK to manage so many players, therefore the idea should have been tier (vertical expansion, not lateral expansion).

I am perfectly ok if they run 2 tournaments simultaneously - top one with 8-10 teams (Regional, corporate doesn’t matter), where each week top 96-120 players will play and rest will be released to play the 2nd tier, starting a day later with 10-20-30-40 teams (doesn’t matter how many teams in 2nd tier, for a county of 230mn, there should be hundreds of good cricketers for that level, but top tier has to be almost as good as international circuit) - can be FC status or grade status, doesn’t matter.

That’s exactly what they do in County Cricket (where they play 2nd XI league) or in AUS (where players are released for district grade cricket - only 72 plays each round of Sheffield Shield). 2nd XI or District cricket isn’t given FC status, therefore ENG/AUS FC runs are considered almost as good as Test runs. PCB can keep people happy by making 2nd tier FC status as well - that’ll only devalue the stats of PAK FC, but the quality isn’t compromised for the top tier.

Here, it’s a joke - it’ll make things even worse.