Lack of professional cricket at school, college, university, the cause of Pakistan's batting woes

[criclover2311]

I am saddened to the core that we 20 crore nation cant produce few batsman who can play their shots with confidence and hit the ball for boundary. We've raw players like Danish Aziz who still needs a year or two develop confidence and rythm for his shots, coming in to take spots.

There's a class difference between Azam Khan and Danish Aziz, Azam who hit Amir out of park at will, why dont we have players like Azam Khan? Simple Answer is while Danish Aziz have spent most of his time studying, Azam Khan literally grew up in Moin Khan Academy Karachi, had bowlers bowling to him round the clock and coaches guiding him everyday. Does Danish Aziz from lower middle class background have access to these facilities? Forget having access to these facilities at his young age like Azam, not even in Domestic he has facilities like Azam Khan, now that he has come to NHPC he can start developing, how far are we. While we see instagram stories of Azam khan having nets every few hours, Danish Aziz has done masters from Karachi University so he probably has burden of running a family too and he has reached age of 24 25 through all this, how much time he spent in training through all these years? Did he have finance to afford such training and coaching? I am sorry but talent is not sufficient, you can play street tennis ball night tournaments with talent but not at international level, even half a decent athletic kid with proper training and coaching throughout his youth can become a good batsman(not talking about bowling b/c it requires physique).

What is cure to this? Can we only expect from Moin KHan or Rashid Latif progeny to run our cricket, and should we now wait for their sons to grow up. Apparently upper middle class families who can actually afford consistent training and coaching on their own focus their resources on studies instead of cricket, wheres the passion and love for cricket which keeps us and this nation alive at nights? Cure is simple introduce cricket, proper professional cricket in schools colleges not tennis ball cricket in half hour breaks, even that is finished nowdays. Ok forget the government schools who cannot afford such facilities, it should be must for rich private schools, India's reason for success is school level cricket, everyone knows that. I believe if we can study nights and days like mad to become engineers doctors and MBA sure we can produce some cricketers. PM Imran Khan what is he doing? They should create balance b/w cricket and studies at schools colleges universities, same system is in england, but it appears Private schools Mafia are only interested in books or maybe little bit of parties with girls dancing, thats what we pay thousands for every month, where is the investment in sports?

I have studied in best schools and colleges in Karachi, and forget football hockey, even the cricket which is on tongue of every child is almost completely absent, I mean are most of us youth couch potatoes who drink coke and eat biryani all day, and most we can do is learn few books, or should we just stick to leisure playing of cricket on streets with tennis ball.

Love for cricket made me join private academy for cricket, one of the renowned in Khi, and sad to say it was horrendous, I hardly got two net practice sessions of hardly 10-15 balls every week, that is on top of lack of kids and most were from lower middle class background, Fair to say if I'd have fared better if I had paid personal net bowler to bowl at me with help of youtube videos, I'd have done better, anyways my love for cricket eventually took to other things and I grew up but this is not the point with amount of free time we have as kids in our hands sure with proper system and encouragement you've thousands of kids having net practice, but for encouragement to be there there has to facilities available, and what is best way to motivate kids to play cricket? Ofcourse where they spend half of their days and socialize, that's school. You've middle class upper middleclass lower middle class kids all gathering at school, proper system would do wonders, I am sure the kids would love to play cricket. Carry on this to university level as well. Forget the government public schools who can hardly afford good education for now, I am talking about rich private schools, Imran Khan who has cricketing background from UK should make it a must for these schools to introduce Hard Ball cricket in their infrastructure. I am sure we can develop atleast enough batsmen to fill our middle order.

That's how it works everywhere in world, unfortunate for our country, youth in USA UK NZ Australia actively participate in sports almost all kids even uptill university level. They produce thousands of football players every year, unfortunate for us forget football we do not have proper infrastructure for cricket, all we do is fill our bags with books and listen to teachers rant through day, even then we're unable to produce any world class engineers or scientists or doctors and are far behind in technology.

 

[criclover2311]

Point to add, why does Pakistan produce fast bowling talent while India produce batsmen?(though India have now good reserves of bowling) Because Fast bowling depends more on talent and sheer athletic abilities and physique and less on coaching and facilities, I mean you only need 100 rs ball and you can run and bowl in empty park and develop your muscles, even then lack of training of young Pakistani bowlers crossing 150 plus shows for e.g. most of time their action needs remodel when they enter international cricket while batting is 80 percent practice, training and coaching and 20 percent talent, even hand eye co-ordination and reflexes build due to practice and more practice, and thats where Pakistan lacks while India excels due to school level cricket.
We've Imran Khan, experts, Pakpassioners talking about grassroots cricket, our domestic system, I think best to target this is where millions of passionate kids and youth gather, that is schools, domestic system comes after that, first you need to bring talent to domestic system and how'd you do that when you've non existent population playing cricket? and that too from lower middle class who're more concerned about their bread and butter than cricket. At schools you can focus on sports without worrying about bread and butter, by the time you come to domestic and international you're good enough.

 

[akbarm96]

Most upper middle class and upper class don't seem to care about competitive cricket.. most guys born in 2000s haven't really born playing cricket with the exception of street cricket and schools themselves haven't invested that much in competitive cricket/football which they should.. this is how our generation is.

 

[criclover2311]

Most upper middle class and upper class don't seem to care about competitive cricket.. most guys born in 2000s haven't really born playing cricket with the exception of street cricket and schools themselves haven't invested that much in competitive cricket/football which they should.. this is how our generation is.

Thats unfortunate b/c trend is opposite in western countries, where upper middle class pride their kids excelling sports, and schools are breeding ground for professional players, whether its basketball, NFL in USA or Football in europe, even cricket in UK, India or Australia.

We've our PM talking about following west, he's cricket lover as well, he should make some deal with these schools, we've our priorities wrong. Remove the cricket, what does Pakistan have? Should we spend most of our time with women and producing kids? And what have we achieved in education so far? We dont have education system of top ten countries, neither do we are ahead in technology or produce world class doctors engineers or scientists.

 

[akbarm96]

And plus, I have heard from somebody, born in mid 2000s said "who cares about cricket" to me when i talked about south african series shows that neither schools or students show any interest to sports seriously with the exception of soccer

 

[criclover2311]

Most upper middle class and upper class don't seem to care about competitive cricket.. most guys born in 2000s haven't really born playing cricket with the exception of street cricket and schools themselves haven't invested that much in competitive cricket/football which they should.. this is how our generation is.

That is because infrastructure and facilities are non existent, most cricket grounds have now commercial buildings on them, non existent cricket grounds in middle or upper middle class areas. Streets are now filled with cars so forget playing there, best way to target the youth is in schools, if schools provide infrastructure for cricket, sure children would play what else do they do anyways? and I mean children love to play cricket, they just dont have facilities available. Schools would be interested in what make them money, government should make some initiatives and make it must for schools.

 

[criclover2311]

And plus, I have heard from somebody, born in mid 2000s said "who cares about cricket" to me when i talked about south african series shows that neither schools or students show any interest to sports seriously with the exception of soccer

It is because schools dont have infrastructure for cricket, kids love to play any sports there is, with our passion for cricket, Pakistan team and PSL and whatnot, kids would rush to playing cricket, but there's no infrastructure, schools are to be blamed but its upto government to manipulate or force schools to take initiatives.

To Europe is football, in US there's basketball and USA have their own football, to us is cricket, ok lets say kids do not care about cricket, we dont see them playing football either once gain poor kids are playing football, middleclass even if plays it plays for leisure and leaves after certain age.

 

[criclover2311]

And plus, I have heard from somebody, born in mid 2000s said "who cares about cricket" to me when i talked about south african series shows that neither schools or students show any interest to sports seriously with the exception of soccer

I get your point, it is b/c socially it is not accepted, reason for it is simple you dont have your friends playing cricket, your own class not playing cricket, you see mostly poor people playing cricket, why'd any upper middle class family support their kids into cricket? That's what I mean if we normalize and introduce cricket at school levels, we've kids competing amongst themselves, so there's automatically social acceptance.
Your example is that for e.g. I go to upper middlecass school no one plays cricket there b/c there's no infrastructure apparently otherwise kids love to play any sports, then I've a cricket ground near my house where I see poor kids playing, so I've this sort of social dilemma stuck in my mind, why'd I go play with poor kids or play sports that poor play, but if we've cricket in schools, you've all upper middleclass kids playing cricket so there's social acceptance.

 

[Shaddy86]

The lack of Street cricket is also slowing down the production of fast bowlers. Most of our bowlers are street/tape ball cricketers. Theres hardly any cricket being played amongst the new generation. There's serious lack of passion/interest in cricket as compared to 20 years ago. Pakistan will not be producing great amount of fast bowlers or batsmen in the future, the mediocrity will be further more mediocre in the near future. There's not a lot of hope and there's no one in particular that you can blame for it.

 

[Shafi]

Pakistan cricket is heading towards hockey and squash way. In future we will not play in World Cups. Teams like Afghanistan, Ireland will be ahead of us. Not only we don’t have talent but also lack of passion. Players are too busy to get attention from nonsense T20 leagues.

 

[TheNightWatchman]

I don't think Cricket was ever an upper/upper middle class sport in Pakistan. With the obvious exception of the Khan family and Burki family which some could say brought cricket into popculture in Pakistan with Imran obviously leading the way.
With the exception of Aitchison and a few other schools, cricket wasn't a school sport even back then. But as IK mentions in his interview in 60 minutes- there was an obvious glamour associated with becoming a cricketer-like a man from a lower class background dreaming of being a filmstar. The younger generation aspired to be Imran Khan-probably the most popular celebrity Pakistan has ever produced. Wasim Akram wouldn't have come to be without Imran Khan. Akram would go watch Imran at Gaddafi stadium and credit his aspirations to becoming a cricketer watching legends like Greg chappel, Viv, Imran and other Pakistani heroes. Similarly The generation after Akram looked up to and wanted to be Wasim Akram- look at the number of left armers coming out post Wasim. However since then there's been barely anyone to look up to. Anyone to inspire the younger generation. It didn't help that Pakistan's glory days had passed. He wasn't even close to as great a cricketer as Imran or Wasim but Shahid Afridi was perhaps Pakistan's last big mega star but I think he failed to inspire the next gen. Cricketers like Shoaib, Amir, Asif, maybe even Ajmal could have picked up the mantle but their careers were a mess and so involved in controversy. The glamour is no more. That rockstar cricket lifestyle that Imran enjoyed is what you see with Indian cricketers today. That should have been us.

Coming back to the point on Akram watching Imran, Viv etc playing at the lahore ground. The fact that international cricket was virtually not played in Pakistan for almost 10 years and quality cricket teams not visiting since 2004/5 definitely hurt Pakistan a lot. Watching Younis Khan scoring doubles in an empty Dubai stadium on TV just isn't the same. Add that to the fact that Pakistan's form has generally been abysmal post 2011. The multiple scandals our supposedly 'top' cricketers went through. People just stopped caring. It wasn't worth the emotional conflict to support a team that let them down so much.

Hence why in my opinion, cricket is dying in Pakistan.

 

[criclover2311]

I don't think Cricket was ever an upper/upper middle class sport in Pakistan. With the obvious exception of the Khan family and Burki family which some could say brought cricket into popculture in Pakistan with Imran obviously leading the way.
With the exception of Aitchison and a few other schools, cricket wasn't a school sport even back then. But as IK mentions in his interview in 60 minutes- there was an obvious glamour associated with becoming a cricketer-like a man from a lower class background dreaming of being a filmstar. The younger generation aspired to be Imran Khan-probably the most popular celebrity Pakistan has ever produced. Wasim Akram wouldn't have come to be without Imran Khan. Akram would go watch Imran at Gaddafi stadium and credit his aspirations to becoming a cricketer watching legends like Greg chappel, Gavaskar, Viv, Imran and other Pakistani heroes. Similarly The generation after Akram looked up to and wanted to be Wasim Akram- look at the number of left armers coming out post Wasim. However since then there's been barely anyone to look up to. Anyone to inspire the younger generation. It didn't help that Pakistan's glory days had passed. He wasn't even close to as great a cricketer as Imran or Wasim but Shahid Afridi was perhaps Pakistan's last big mega star but I think he failed to inspire the next gen. Cricketers like Shoaib, Amir, Asif, maybe even Ajmal could have picked up the mantle but their careers were a mess and so involved in controversy. The glamour is no more. That rockstar cricket lifestyle that Imran enjoyed is what you see with Indian cricketers today. That should have been us.

Coming back to the point on Akram watching Imran, Viv etc playing at the lahore ground. The fact that international cricket was virtually not played in Pakistan for almost 10 years and quality cricket teams not visiting since 2004/5 definitely hurt Pakistan a lot. Watching Younis Khan scoring doubles in an empty Dubai stadium on TV just isn't the same. Add that to the fact that Pakistan's form has generally been abysmal post 2011. The multiple scandals our supposedly 'top' cricketers went through. People just stopped caring. It wasn't worth the emotional conflict to support a team that let them down so much.

Hence why in my opinion, cricket is dying in Pakistan.

You're talking about time period when cricket was hardly advertised, nowdays every child loves and watches cricket, I've simply mentioned middle and upper middle b/c they seem to have finance and time for training and coaching required, what we lack ofcourse is infrastructure, kids love to play sports any sports for that matter, but cricket tops the list for Pakistanis, you grow up watching cricket. If infrastructure is introduced in schools and schools are encouraged where millions of kids study, they'll certainly play cricket till age 16 or 17, after that decision is purely theirs whether to follow or not into professional career, and with t20 leagues around, it is pretty lucrative profession and nowdays there's charisma to cricket.

What you say is hardly true nowdays, we've european middle upper middle class playing football in schools same goes usa with their sport, there's pride and passion, sports make important part of society and especially children, nowdays our parents and schools are focused on education, but what have we achieved in that sector too? While Europe and US excels in both. I think if you give these kids infrastructure they will play atleast until the end of their school life, we love competitive sports forget professionaly just interschool tournaments.

 

[criclover2311]

The lack of Street cricket is also slowing down the production of fast bowlers. Most of our bowlers are street/tape ball cricketers. Theres hardly any cricket being played amongst the new generation. There's serious lack of passion/interest in cricket as compared to 20 years ago. Pakistan will not be producing great amount of fast bowlers or batsmen in the future, the mediocrity will be further more mediocre in the near future. There's not a lot of hope and there's no one in particular that you can blame for it.

Yes unfortunately we've cars filling the streets, and grounds almost removed, lack of extra curricular in schools as well, blame goes to government for not taking initiatives. Its not the fault of children, they love any past time, when you dont have a place to play what can they do.

 

[pakistani pride]

And plus, I have heard from somebody, born in mid 2000s said "who cares about cricket" to me when i talked about south african series shows that neither schools or students show any interest to sports seriously with the exception of soccer

Soccer? I always find that quite strange. What teams do they support? Its pretty sad that at these levels youngsters do not play sports.

 

[Shafi]

Pakistan cricket is heading towards hockey and squash way. In future we will not play in World Cups. Teams like Afghanistan, Ireland will be ahead of us. Not only we don’t have talent but also lack of passion. Players are too busy to get attention from nonsense T20 leagues.

 

[Rafa]

Just one match loss to Zimbabwe and now Pakistan Cricket is all doomed . Now Pakistan will fail to play in World Cups , Lose Test Status and become an associate Cricket Nation who will play with Singapore and Malaysia in Associate tournaments )

 

[Mamoon]

After partition, in the formative years of Pakistan, Pakistan cricket was largely an elitist sport.

The first captain of Pakistan, A.H. Kardar, was an an Oxford graduate and the first great player of Pakistan, Fazal Mahmood, was a student at Islamia College Lahore when he got selected for Pakistan, where his father served as the professor of economics.

This had a big impact on the early culture of Pakistan cricket — our players were confident, charismatic, articulate and knew how to carry themselves.

Consequently, the Pakistani cricket team was also highly secular and had a drinking culture.

Miandad was Pakistan’s first successful cricketer from a modest background.

While Pakistan had its fair share of cricketers from humble backgrounds before him, most of them were lost in history because of the aristocracy established by people like A.H. Kardar and Javed Burki, another Oxford graduate.

Miandad established himself as the pioneer of Pakistan batting and opened the door for cricketers from all background to establish themselves.

From late 80s onwards, Pakistan cricket transitioned from an elitist sport to a common man’s sport. Imran Khan was the last educated and suave captain with secular views.

Slowly, cricket became a poor man’s sport who viewed the game as a means to escape poverty and unemployment.

This took the upper-class and the upper-middle class out of Pakistan cricket as academic institutions no longer provided an outlet to play cricket without impacting your studies, and thus, because of the risk factor involved, people who could afford quality education stopped pursuing cricket as a profession.

With Pakistan becoming an exclusive poor man’s sport, it eroded the culture of Pakistan cricket. Our players went from confident and articulate personalities to submissive and timid characters who have no confidence and can barely speak coherently in any language.

They are terrible ambassadors of the game and it is embarrassing to watch them speak and carry themselves.

Prior to the 2019 World Cup when all captains were sitting together and talking to the press, it was frankly embarrassing to watch the world of difference between the body language and the communication skills of Virat Kohli and Sarfraz.

Moreover, because of most of these players come from impoverished backgrounds, they did not have access to good nutrition in their childhood and this has affected their mental development and cognitive abilities.

Most of these players are simply not mentally capable of serving as ambassadors of the country and representing the nation at the international level in any capacity.

As far as the poor batting of Pakistan is concerned, it has been a problem throughout the history of Pakistan cricket and that is because of two factors: batting requires greater intelligence and cognitive abilities than bowling and Pakistan adopted a fast bowling culture thanks to tampering with the ball using bottle-caps.

Sarfraz Nawaz passed the “dark art” to Imran who passed it on to Wasim and Waqar which established a bowling culture.

Pakistan rolled teams over using reverse-swing achieved with dubious means. We ignored the batting woes because Wasim and Waqar could bulldoze teams with the type of old balls that no umpire will let the bowlers use today.

We were happy to carry mediocre batsmen like Aamer Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed in the top 3 for over a decade because we could still win matches with reverse-swing.

However, with the advent of high-def cameras and greater scrutiny, it has become very difficult to tamper to that extent and thus our fast bowling has gone down the drain while our batting has remained a circus show.

 

[criclover2311]

After partition, in the formative years of Pakistan, Pakistan cricket was largely an elitist sport.

The first captain of Pakistan, A.H. Kardar, was an an Oxford graduate and the first great player of Pakistan, Fazal Mahmood, was a student at Islamia College Lahore when he got selected for Pakistan, where his father served as the professor of economics.

This had a big impact on the early culture of Pakistan cricket — our players were confident, charismatic, articulate and knew how to carry themselves.

Consequently, the Pakistani cricket team was also highly secular and had a drinking culture.

Miandad was Pakistan’s first successful cricketer from a modest background.

While Pakistan had its fair share of cricketers from humble backgrounds before him, most of them were lost in history because of the aristocracy established by people like A.H. Kardar and Javed Burki, another Oxford graduate.

Miandad established himself as the pioneer of Pakistan batting and opened the door for cricketers from all background to establish themselves.

From late 80s onwards, Pakistan cricket transitioned from an elitist sport to a common man’s sport. Imran Khan was the last educated and suave captain with secular views.

Slowly, cricket became a poor man’s sport who viewed the game as a means to escape poverty and unemployment.

This took the upper-class and the upper-middle class out of Pakistan cricket as academic institutions no longer provided an outlet to play cricket without impacting your studies, and thus, because of the risk factor involved, people who could afford quality education stopped pursuing cricket as a profession.

With Pakistan becoming an exclusive poor man’s sport, it eroded the culture of Pakistan cricket. Our players went from confident and articulate personalities to submissive and timid characters who have no confidence and can barely speak coherently in any language.

They are terrible ambassadors of the game and it is embarrassing to watch them speak and carry themselves.

Prior to the 2019 World Cup when all captains were sitting together and talking to the press, it was frankly embarrassing to watch the world of difference between the body language and the communication skills of Virat Kohli and Sarfraz.

Moreover, because of most of these players come from impoverished backgrounds, they did not have access to good nutrition in their childhood and this has affected their mental development and cognitive abilities.

Most of these players are simply not mentally capable of serving as ambassadors of the country and representing the nation at the international level in any capacity.

As far as the poor batting of Pakistan is concerned, it has been a problem throughout the history of Pakistan cricket and that is because of two factors: batting requires greater intelligence and cognitive abilities than bowling and Pakistan adopted a fast bowling culture thanks to tampering with the ball using bottle-caps.

Sarfraz Nawaz passed the “dark art” to Imran who passed it on to Wasim and Waqar which established a bowling culture.

Pakistan rolled teams over using reverse-swing achieved with dubious means. We ignored the batting woes because Wasim and Waqar could bulldoze teams with the type of old balls that no umpire will let the bowlers use today.

We were happy to carry mediocre batsmen like Aamer Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed in the top 3 for over a decade because we could still win matches with reverse-swing.

However, with the advent of high-def cameras and greater scrutiny, it has become very difficult to tamper to that extent and thus our fast bowling has gone down the drain while our batting has remained a circus show.

Absolutely, my focus is not to pinpoint upper middle class or middleclass, I simply mentioned them b/c they seem to have finance and stability to have proper coaches and training, and pursue career freely. We've Virat Kohli Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar Ajinkya Rahane and most Indian batsmen who're of middleclass but have come up through school cricket, b/c school can afford them facilities, many indian cricketers at young age choose school on basis of cricket and not on education, and I believe there'd not be much difference in education. but in that case even India is lagging behind, b/c apparently parents of these few cricketers had to move cities for good school cricket, but still ahead of Pakistan where school level cricket is non existent. Imran Khan talked alot about fixing cricket on grassroots level, but him not following this pattern is surprising, its successful and best method if you want your country to excel at sports, we rarely have olympics participants, no soccer team, apparently we want some kid from village once in a blue moon to go and compete at olympics, this is poor whereas in rest of world kids actually train at school facilities for gymnastics swimming at whatnot.

And emphasis on education by upper middle class families and schools? How many world class scientists and engineers have we produced? We're poor in technological and industrial advancements, forget this even our education system is below par.

We've upper middlecass working men aged 25-30 play friendly red ballmatches amongst them, they've proper teams and what not though they're not professionals it's all about passion and simply they've money to pursue their passion, they can book grounds, afford kits.

 

[criclover2311]

After partition, in the formative years of Pakistan, Pakistan cricket was largely an elitist sport.

The first captain of Pakistan, A.H. Kardar, was an an Oxford graduate and the first great player of Pakistan, Fazal Mahmood, was a student at Islamia College Lahore when he got selected for Pakistan, where his father served as the professor of economics.

This had a big impact on the early culture of Pakistan cricket — our players were confident, charismatic, articulate and knew how to carry themselves.

Consequently, the Pakistani cricket team was also highly secular and had a drinking culture.

Miandad was Pakistan’s first successful cricketer from a modest background.

While Pakistan had its fair share of cricketers from humble backgrounds before him, most of them were lost in history because of the aristocracy established by people like A.H. Kardar and Javed Burki, another Oxford graduate.

Miandad established himself as the pioneer of Pakistan batting and opened the door for cricketers from all background to establish themselves.

From late 80s onwards, Pakistan cricket transitioned from an elitist sport to a common man’s sport. Imran Khan was the last educated and suave captain with secular views.

Slowly, cricket became a poor man’s sport who viewed the game as a means to escape poverty and unemployment.

This took the upper-class and the upper-middle class out of Pakistan cricket as academic institutions no longer provided an outlet to play cricket without impacting your studies, and thus, because of the risk factor involved, people who could afford quality education stopped pursuing cricket as a profession.

With Pakistan becoming an exclusive poor man’s sport, it eroded the culture of Pakistan cricket. Our players went from confident and articulate personalities to submissive and timid characters who have no confidence and can barely speak coherently in any language.

They are terrible ambassadors of the game and it is embarrassing to watch them speak and carry themselves.

Prior to the 2019 World Cup when all captains were sitting together and talking to the press, it was frankly embarrassing to watch the world of difference between the body language and the communication skills of Virat Kohli and Sarfraz.

Moreover, because of most of these players come from impoverished backgrounds, they did not have access to good nutrition in their childhood and this has affected their mental development and cognitive abilities.

Most of these players are simply not mentally capable of serving as ambassadors of the country and representing the nation at the international level in any capacity.

As far as the poor batting of Pakistan is concerned, it has been a problem throughout the history of Pakistan cricket and that is because of two factors: batting requires greater intelligence and cognitive abilities than bowling and Pakistan adopted a fast bowling culture thanks to tampering with the ball using bottle-caps.

Sarfraz Nawaz passed the “dark art” to Imran who passed it on to Wasim and Waqar which established a bowling culture.

Pakistan rolled teams over using reverse-swing achieved with dubious means. We ignored the batting woes because Wasim and Waqar could bulldoze teams with the type of old balls that no umpire will let the bowlers use today.

We were happy to carry mediocre batsmen like Aamer Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed in the top 3 for over a decade because we could still win matches with reverse-swing.

However, with the advent of high-def cameras and greater scrutiny, it has become very difficult to tamper to that extent and thus our fast bowling has gone down the drain while our batting has remained a circus show.

While I was researching on PCB's progress in investing in school level cricket, I came across U16 AH Kardar national cup, which have schools from all over country participate. https://www.pcb.com.pk/domestic-detail/game-development-overview-of-the-school-cricket-program.html

This is good initiative for the beginning, but best would be to provide infrastructure and coaches for cricket right there in the school or facilities distributed to schools, we can add swimming soccer later on, where kids can just go in the morning evening and play and train for free and by the end of their schooling career you've well developed pool of talent of aged 16-17 kids, after that its upto children whether they want to pursue professional career or not, but atleast have cricket as extra curricular, with proper facilities and coaches, you cant have kids to separately join academies, its too much work for parents and kids, Just introduce cricket at schools as leisure activity, what do kids do in their past time anyways? This is the system followed all over the first world, but provided we're developing nation I'd say invest only in big cities for now and schools which are rich and move from there if you want Pakistan to excel at sports.

 

[criclover2311]

After partition, in the formative years of Pakistan, Pakistan cricket was largely an elitist sport.

The first captain of Pakistan, A.H. Kardar, was an an Oxford graduate and the first great player of Pakistan, Fazal Mahmood, was a student at Islamia College Lahore when he got selected for Pakistan, where his father served as the professor of economics.

This had a big impact on the early culture of Pakistan cricket — our players were confident, charismatic, articulate and knew how to carry themselves.

Consequently, the Pakistani cricket team was also highly secular and had a drinking culture.

Miandad was Pakistan’s first successful cricketer from a modest background.

While Pakistan had its fair share of cricketers from humble backgrounds before him, most of them were lost in history because of the aristocracy established by people like A.H. Kardar and Javed Burki, another Oxford graduate.

Miandad established himself as the pioneer of Pakistan batting and opened the door for cricketers from all background to establish themselves.

From late 80s onwards, Pakistan cricket transitioned from an elitist sport to a common man’s sport. Imran Khan was the last educated and suave captain with secular views.

Slowly, cricket became a poor man’s sport who viewed the game as a means to escape poverty and unemployment.

This took the upper-class and the upper-middle class out of Pakistan cricket as academic institutions no longer provided an outlet to play cricket without impacting your studies, and thus, because of the risk factor involved, people who could afford quality education stopped pursuing cricket as a profession.

With Pakistan becoming an exclusive poor man’s sport, it eroded the culture of Pakistan cricket. Our players went from confident and articulate personalities to submissive and timid characters who have no confidence and can barely speak coherently in any language.

They are terrible ambassadors of the game and it is embarrassing to watch them speak and carry themselves.

Prior to the 2019 World Cup when all captains were sitting together and talking to the press, it was frankly embarrassing to watch the world of difference between the body language and the communication skills of Virat Kohli and Sarfraz.

Moreover, because of most of these players come from impoverished backgrounds, they did not have access to good nutrition in their childhood and this has affected their mental development and cognitive abilities.

Most of these players are simply not mentally capable of serving as ambassadors of the country and representing the nation at the international level in any capacity.

As far as the poor batting of Pakistan is concerned, it has been a problem throughout the history of Pakistan cricket and that is because of two factors: batting requires greater intelligence and cognitive abilities than bowling and Pakistan adopted a fast bowling culture thanks to tampering with the ball using bottle-caps.

Sarfraz Nawaz passed the “dark art” to Imran who passed it on to Wasim and Waqar which established a bowling culture.

Pakistan rolled teams over using reverse-swing achieved with dubious means. We ignored the batting woes because Wasim and Waqar could bulldoze teams with the type of old balls that no umpire will let the bowlers use today.

We were happy to carry mediocre batsmen like Aamer Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed in the top 3 for over a decade because we could still win matches with reverse-swing.

However, with the advent of high-def cameras and greater scrutiny, it has become very difficult to tamper to that extent and thus our fast bowling has gone down the drain while our batting has remained a circus show.

Also some people go on about fixing the first class structure, I am all for it, but you also need talent reaching the first class structure, how do you get that? You can have high class coaches at NHPC and at First class level, but do you want them to develop 20 23 year old cricketers in few months? Thats not possible. You need to prepare them young, Since most parents are not ready to sacrifice their kids education for cricket, you can mix the two.

 

[Markhor]

As I said elsewhere after every defeat many fans claim our problems are fixed by playing ABC instead of XYZ, or by sacking coaches and selectors as if we haven't had a revolving door of personnel in the last 20 years. We need to identify the structural issues. We make comparisons to IPL and Indian cricket and ignore WHY or HOW they got there as if their cricketers just grew from trees.

Now the likes of Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Khushdil Shah and Iftikhar Ahmed are being cursed for flopping in internationals. But these same flops have piled on the runs in recent domestic competitions where their faulty techniques aren't exposed. So the question should be how we narrow the gap between domestic and international cricket ?

One way is to invest in the grassroots as the OP is suggesting so the quality of cricketers being fed into our FC system improves.

The restructuring of Club and City Cricket is a good start, putting these teams under the control of a Regional Association ensuring clear accountability. Hopefully properly trained coaches will be attached to these Cities and Clubs with Regional Academies outside the NHPC to groom the best talent. For the first time there's a clear pathway into the national team between Club - City - 2nd XI - FC Cricket.

However I haven't heard any plans from PCB to revitalise School and College Cricket which was the reason why Pakistan were a competitive Test nation post-Partition. Many of our cricketers had experienced big games and rivalries playing for Islamia or Government College.

Now understandably given a large proportion of the population lives below the poverty line, most families want their children to make a living and prioritise academics instead of pursuing sport. That's why Sporting Scholarships like we see in the West are critical, allowing youngsters to balance their cricket with studies and helping them become well rounded individuals.

 

[KB]

After partition, in the formative years of Pakistan, Pakistan cricket was largely an elitist sport.

The first captain of Pakistan, A.H. Kardar, was an an Oxford graduate and the first great player of Pakistan, Fazal Mahmood, was a student at Islamia College Lahore when he got selected for Pakistan, where his father served as the professor of economics.

One of the reasons Pakistan cricket had relative success in the 1950s, despite the trauma of partition and chronic shortage of funding, was a competitive college system, particularly in Lahore and to some extent in Karachi.

Students of lslamia College in Lahore who represented Pakistan in Test matches in the 1950s included such names as Fazal Mahmood, Gul Muhammad, Nazar Muhammad, Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Maqsood Ahmad, lmtiaz Ahmad, Shujauddin and Zulfiqar Ahmad. In the famous 1954 Oval triumph, six of the Pakistani players were educated at Islamia College.

Rivalry between Islamic College and Government College was intense and large crowds would gather to watch these colleges play in the early years of Pakistan. Another important rivalry, this time in club cricket, was that of Crescent and Mamdot. Those of Islamia College tended to represent Crescent, whereas the graduates Government College and Aitchison tended to find their way into Mamdot.

In Karachi there was also keen competition between Sind Madrassah and St Patrick’s.

Interestingly the decline in college cricket is dated by some (such as Majid Khan) to the 1960s. According to him, in an effort to increase student intake, more buildings and classrooms were built thereby reducing playing fields. For the more privileged cricket was also perhaps seen as a distraction from studies and middle-class employment.

 

[Shaka81]

I don't think Cricket was ever an upper/upper middle class sport in Pakistan. With the obvious exception of the Khan family and Burki family which some could say brought cricket into popculture in Pakistan with Imran obviously leading the way.
With the exception of Aitchison and a few other schools, cricket wasn't a school sport even back then. But as IK mentions in his interview in 60 minutes- there was an obvious glamour associated with becoming a cricketer-like a man from a lower class background dreaming of being a filmstar. The younger generation aspired to be Imran Khan-probably the most popular celebrity Pakistan has ever produced. Wasim Akram wouldn't have come to be without Imran Khan. Akram would go watch Imran at Gaddafi stadium and credit his aspirations to becoming a cricketer watching legends like Greg chappel, Viv, Imran and other Pakistani heroes. Similarly The generation after Akram looked up to and wanted to be Wasim Akram- look at the number of left armers coming out post Wasim. However since then there's been barely anyone to look up to. Anyone to inspire the younger generation. It didn't help that Pakistan's glory days had passed. He wasn't even close to as great a cricketer as Imran or Wasim but Shahid Afridi was perhaps Pakistan's last big mega star but I think he failed to inspire the next gen. Cricketers like Shoaib, Amir, Asif, maybe even Ajmal could have picked up the mantle but their careers were a mess and so involved in controversy. The glamour is no more. That rockstar cricket lifestyle that Imran enjoyed is what you see with Indian cricketers today. That should have been us.

Coming back to the point on Akram watching Imran, Viv etc playing at the lahore ground. The fact that international cricket was virtually not played in Pakistan for almost 10 years and quality cricket teams not visiting since 2004/5 definitely hurt Pakistan a lot. Watching Younis Khan scoring doubles in an empty Dubai stadium on TV just isn't the same. Add that to the fact that Pakistan's form has generally been abysmal post 2011. The multiple scandals our supposedly 'top' cricketers went through. People just stopped caring. It wasn't worth the emotional conflict to support a team that let them down so much.

Hence why in my opinion, cricket is dying in Pakistan.

I mostly agree with what you said but only disagree on one point. Shahid Afridi has inspired a whole generation but if my experiences when I visited Pakistan are common, then he's had a negative effect. Everywhere I saw people playing cricket they just wanted to slog every ball while claiming to be Afridi. For me that is his legacy as a batsman, someone who excited people but ultimately encouraged them to ignore technique and just try to slog sixes. You can also see it in the young attack minded batsmen Pakistan are producing.
In terms of school cricket, I noticed a lot of similarities between Scottish culture and Pakistani culture where fitness and healthy eating are a secondary concern. I met a lot of unhealthy, overweight people. In Scotland there was a recognition that our football teams were becoming weaker and less youth development was taking place. Our national team hadn't qualified for an international tournament in decades, so the Scottish Football Association introduced Performance Schools just under a decade ago and we're seeing the results now with players playing for big clubs in EPL and the national team qualifying for the Euros. I think Pakistan needs to introduce something similar, dedicated Performance Schools where all young players who show talent from a young age can study and then train together. They can even offer scholarships for poorer students who show sporting talent to make it more aspirational.

 

[criclover2311]

One of the reasons Pakistan cricket had relative success in the 1950s, despite the trauma of partition and chronic shortage of funding, was a competitive college system, particularly in Lahore and to some extent in Karachi.

Students of lslamia College in Lahore who represented Pakistan in Test matches in the 1950s included such names as Fazal Mahmood, Gul Muhammad, Nazar Muhammad, Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Maqsood Ahmad, lmtiaz Ahmad, Shujauddin and Zulfiqar Ahmad. In the famous 1954 Oval triumph, six of the Pakistani players were educated at Islamia College.

Rivalry between Islamic College and Government College was intense and large crowds would gather to watch these colleges play in the early years of Pakistan. Another important rivalry, this time in club cricket, was that of Crescent and Mamdot. Those of Islamia College tended to represent Crescent, whereas the graduates Government College and Aitchison tended to find their way into Mamdot.

In Karachi there was also keen competition between Sind Madrassah and St Patrick’s.

Interestingly the decline in college cricket is dated by some (such as Majid Khan) to the 1960s. According to him, in an effort to increase student intake, more buildings and classrooms were built thereby reducing playing fields. For the more privileged cricket was also perhaps seen as a distraction from studies and middle-class employment.

Few competitive colleges and schools could build formidable XI, when otherwise whole nation cant produce good cricketers, reason is clear you've young healthy fresh kids coming to schools and colleges, who can easily be developed into professional cricketers if there's infrastructure, and competitive environment. To say sports in schools and colleges will not cause much change in Pakistan cricket is ignorance since the very system which brings soccer players to europe and even cricketers to UK and sufficient amount in India are schools and colleges as well.

 

[TheNightWatchman]

Few competitive colleges and schools could build formidable XI, when otherwise whole nation cant produce good cricketers, reason is clear you've young healthy fresh kids coming to schools and colleges, who can easily be developed into professional cricketers if there's infrastructure, and competitive environment. To say sports in schools and colleges will not cause much change in Pakistan cricket is ignorance since the very system which brings soccer players to europe and even cricketers to UK and sufficient amount in India are schools and colleges as well.

A heck of an investment but if any governement can do it, it's probably the current one.

 

[HappyWarsFan]

This is so funny to read after one loss in a bilateral T20I )

 

[salahuddin10]

Almost all top private schools have hard ball cricket teams in lahore and karachi.But problem is that they play it very unprofessionaly because schools dont have grounds.So what schools do is that they have one net in their school and to play matches schools have to book grounds.On a weekday booking a ground costs 6k in Lahore wheras on weekends they cost around 20 k.So on we mainly play on weekdays after school and the max we can play is 3 hours.The pcb did start the AH kardar school tournament but matches were held on weekdays and they were held when students appear for their o,a levels exams so the top schools didnot particpate in it.The passion for cricket is still immense in students but we need proper facilities.If all schools are given access to grounds and you have games every weekends than i am sure that things will improve

 

[Savak]

The key is money. Upper class, middle class, educated families will not let their kids pursue sports if the payback is not significant, life changing vs the decision to pursue studies.

IPL has been a huge game changer for India where parents know that playing in the IPL is life changing. The likes of pant, pandya are so young and they are already living in penthouses. Indian domestic players make very good money where they no longer need jobs to support themselves while playing cricket and they can focus fully on their own game.

Pakistani Cricket will continue to be a poor uneducated man's sport if the money is abysmal, no educated family will let their child pursue cricket especially go through the ragra of our corrupt domestic cricket

This is why I was so desperately hoping that the so called pcb PTV deal could net the $200 million as was being flouted because you can't expect a system to churn out quality with abysmal infrastructure

 

[Colorblind Genius]

I am saddened to the core that we 20 crore nation cant produce few batsman who can play their shots with confidence and hit the ball for boundary. We've raw players like Danish Aziz who still needs a year or two develop confidence and rythm for his shots, coming in to take spots.

There's a class difference between Azam Khan and Danish Aziz, Azam who hit Amir out of park at will, why dont we have players like Azam Khan? Simple Answer is while Danish Aziz have spent most of his time studying, Azam Khan literally grew up in Moin Khan Academy Karachi, had bowlers bowling to him round the clock and coaches guiding him everyday. Does Danish Aziz from lower middle class background have access to these facilities? Forget having access to these facilities at his young age like Azam, not even in Domestic he has facilities like Azam Khan, now that he has come to NHPC he can start developing, how far are we. While we see instagram stories of Azam khan having nets every few hours, Danish Aziz has done masters from Karachi University so he probably has burden of running a family too and he has reached age of 24 25 through all this, how much time he spent in training through all these years? Did he have finance to afford such training and coaching? I am sorry but talent is not sufficient, you can play street tennis ball night tournaments with talent but not at international level, even half a decent athletic kid with proper training and coaching throughout his youth can become a good batsman(not talking about bowling b/c it requires physique).

What is cure to this? Can we only expect from Moin KHan or Rashid Latif progeny to run our cricket, and should we now wait for their sons to grow up. Apparently upper middle class families who can actually afford consistent training and coaching on their own focus their resources on studies instead of cricket, wheres the passion and love for cricket which keeps us and this nation alive at nights? Cure is simple introduce cricket, proper professional cricket in schools colleges not tennis ball cricket in half hour breaks, even that is finished nowdays. Ok forget the government schools who cannot afford such facilities, it should be must for rich private schools, India's reason for success is school level cricket, everyone knows that. I believe if we can study nights and days like mad to become engineers doctors and MBA sure we can produce some cricketers. PM Imran Khan what is he doing? They should create balance b/w cricket and studies at schools colleges universities, same system is in england, but it appears Private schools Mafia are only interested in books or maybe little bit of parties with girls dancing, thats what we pay thousands for every month, where is the investment in sports?

I have studied in best schools and colleges in Karachi, and forget football hockey, even the cricket which is on tongue of every child is almost completely absent, I mean are most of us youth couch potatoes who drink coke and eat biryani all day, and most we can do is learn few books, or should we just stick to leisure playing of cricket on streets with tennis ball.

Love for cricket made me join private academy for cricket, one of the renowned in Khi, and sad to say it was horrendous, I hardly got two net practice sessions of hardly 10-15 balls every week, that is on top of lack of kids and most were from lower middle class background, Fair to say if I'd have fared better if I had paid personal net bowler to bowl at me with help of youtube videos, I'd have done better, anyways my love for cricket eventually took to other things and I grew up but this is not the point with amount of free time we have as kids in our hands sure with proper system and encouragement you've thousands of kids having net practice, but for encouragement to be there there has to facilities available, and what is best way to motivate kids to play cricket? Ofcourse where they spend half of their days and socialize, that's school. You've middle class upper middleclass lower middle class kids all gathering at school, proper system would do wonders, I am sure the kids would love to play cricket. Carry on this to university level as well. Forget the government public schools who can hardly afford good education for now, I am talking about rich private schools, Imran Khan who has cricketing background from UK should make it a must for these schools to introduce Hard Ball cricket in their infrastructure. I am sure we can develop atleast enough batsmen to fill our middle order.

That's how it works everywhere in world, unfortunate for our country, youth in USA UK NZ Australia actively participate in sports almost all kids even uptill university level. They produce thousands of football players every year, unfortunate for us forget football we do not have proper infrastructure for cricket, all we do is fill our bags with books and listen to teachers rant through day, even then we're unable to produce any world class engineers or scientists or doctors and are far behind in technology.

congrats for the POTW.
But frankly speaking, there is hardly anything new here. This is a pretty beaten up topic that has been discussed and agreed upon quite a few times.

I think the two good things about OP is that it's well written, and it could serve a reminder.

Congrats again.

 

[UP]

Pour money in grassroots, invest in right places. Give domestic players a great pay so it can become a career. And the rest will follow by time. If money isn’t there, we will continue to linger at number 7.

Pakistan cricket has survived major setbacks solely because of passion for the game. And passion can drive the game only that long.

 

[Farabi]

As I said elsewhere after every defeat many fans claim our problems are fixed by playing ABC instead of XYZ, or by sacking coaches and selectors as if we haven't had a revolving door of personnel in the last 20 years. We need to identify the structural issues. We make comparisons to IPL and Indian cricket and ignore WHY or HOW they got there as if their cricketers just grew from trees.

Now the likes of Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Khushdil Shah and Iftikhar Ahmed are being cursed for flopping in internationals. But these same flops have piled on the runs in recent domestic competitions where their faulty techniques aren't exposed. So the question should be how we narrow the gap between domestic and international cricket ?

One way is to invest in the grassroots as the OP is suggesting so the quality of cricketers being fed into our FC system improves.

The restructuring of Club and City Cricket is a good start, putting these teams under the control of a Regional Association ensuring clear accountability. Hopefully properly trained coaches will be attached to these Cities and Clubs with Regional Academies outside the NHPC to groom the best talent. For the first time there's a clear pathway into the national team between Club - City - 2nd XI - FC Cricket.

However I haven't heard any plans from PCB to revitalise School and College Cricket which was the reason why Pakistan were a competitive Test nation post-Partition. Many of our cricketers had experienced big games and rivalries playing for Islamia or Government College.

Now understandably given a large proportion of the population lives below the poverty line, most families want their children to make a living and prioritise academics instead of pursuing sport. That's why Sporting Scholarships like we see in the West are critical, allowing youngsters to balance their cricket with studies and helping them become well rounded individuals.

Agreed.
Though ODI batting (Imam, Fakhar, Babar, Sohail, Rizwan, and Imam) is not bad at all. Azhar, Babar, Fawad Alam, and Rizwan are also a solid test middle order though opening is weak, but most teams are struggling in finding test openers today. Batsmen like Saud and Usman are finding it hard to break into this middle order.
As counterintuitive as it may sound to Pakistani ears, but we could be a lot more competitive if our bowling improves.
This is specially true in test cricket where we regularly score decent totals but the opposition runs away with the game. Happened in Aus, happened in Eng, and it happened in NZ. Pakistan batting posted decent totals 250-350 through Aus, NZ and England series but Pak couldn’t get 20 wickets to make the game competitive. Sure there weren’t mega totals, but games could have been and should have been more competitive.
India’s extraordinary win in Aus was anchored by their bowling act, where Siraj, Bumrah, Yadav and pretty much all the fast bowlers bowled tight and hot heaps of wickets. Ashwin had Smith’s number and Warner just couldn’t dominate them. Do you remember what Warner did with Pak?
The spin department was equally potent with Ashwin and Jadeja regularly chipping in with wickets. Marcus.L, Warner and Smith were all kept quite throughout the low-scoring series.
Concurrent dips in Yasir and Abbas’ form was exasperated by the presence of inexperienced bowlers like Shaheen, Musa and Naseem who were completely out of their depth.
Pakistan either has over the hill bowlers (Tabish, Sohail, IK) or really young inexperienced bowlers. The entire 25-30 generation is missing. This was supposed to be around the time Amir and Junaid would have peaked.
Pakistan team competed much better in T20s when the bowling does well.
Yes Hassan and Shaheen are up and up, but Pakistan currently has no top ten ODI or Test bowler, Spinner or fast.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pleased to review efforts of Punjab for revival of school cricket, esp role of Cent Punjab Cricket Assoc. 870 schools & 231 college grounds, 355 sports facilities developed across Punjab. I urge all provinces to focus on reviving sports & providing sports facilities for our youth</p>— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1431525585105428481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Bewal Express]

Young batsman need good wickets to grow up on and to play lots of cricket against good bowlers. Their talent should take care of the rest

 

[OmarKhan99]

Introducing/re-introducing competitive sports into schools should be the primal focus for both the Sports and Education ministries/administrations. Competitive sport in schools isn't just essential for those looking to branch out to professional cricket in the future, but it's also crucial for those who won't and aren't looking to go pro. It's unbelievably crucial for the holistic development of every single kid, regardless of where they want to end up.

Through this, we'd also see cricketers with more comprehensive educational backgrounds in the XI more often.

 

[MenInG]

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday approved a framework for promotion of school cricket in particular and domestic cricket in general, advising the Central Punjab Cricket Association to implement the model in its entirety.

The prime minister attended a presentation on domestic cricket in the country with special focus on school cricket. The presentation was made by the Chairman of Central Punjab Cricket Association (CPCA), Abdullah Khan Sumbal.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza, Special Assistant to PM Dr Shahbaz Gill, Pakistan Cricket Board’s CEO Wasim Khan and CPCA’s chief executive Khurram Niazi.

The prime minister appreciated the model developed by CPCA, which is affiliated with the PCB, and called for its replication all over the country strategically.

The prime minister asserted his total support to the School Cricket Championship beginning in Central Punjab from Sept 15 and stated that school cricket had immense potential to generate and groom real cricketing talent.

Chief Secretary Punjab Jawad Rafique Malik highlighted the significant role of the Punjab government in this major initiative.

“Pleased to review efforts of Punjab for revival of school cricket, especially [the] role of Central Punjab Cricket Association. 870 schools and 231 college grounds [as well as] 355 sports facilities (have been) developed across Punjab,” the prime minister said on Twitter.

He also urged all provinces to focus on reviving sports and providing sports facilities for the youth.

In a separate tweet, the prime minister also thanked Ehsan Mani for his contribution to cricket in Pakistan during his three-year tenure as the PCB chairman.

“I especially appreciate his setting up, for the first time, a regional domestic cricket structure in Pakistan and his role in bringing back international cricket teams to Pakistan,” the prime minister remarked.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2021

 

[b.lesner]

Pakistan Cricket Board today announced the launch of a scholarship programme in partnership with the prestigious Aitchison College, through which three outstanding cricketers from the PCB’s pathway programmes will receive cricket scholarships each year.

Based on pre-determined criteria, the PCB will identify three suitable and talented boys each year, including those who otherwise could not afford to attend the school without full financial support in the form of a PCB Cricket Scholarship.

Aitchison College will offer these youngsters places from Grade 7 to Grade 9 once each selected boy has met the minimum academic standards of the College for entry.

Apart from acquiring highest standard of education, the players will also represent the Aitchison College cricket teams at various levels, while also remaining available to represent their Cricket Associations in the PCB-organised events. The PCB National High Performance Centre will monitor their cricketing progress, ensuring they continue on their path to becoming high quality cricketers.

PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan: “The PCB-Aitchison College Cricket Scholarship programme is a ground breaking initiative. The College has a rich history of producing world-class cricketers and there is no better example than our current prime minister and patron Imran Khan. Through this scholarship, we can change the lives of these boys by providing them with world-class education.

“Through the combination of educational excellence and high quality cricket skills programs, we aim to support the development of these future leaders. The mutually agreed eligibility criteria will enable us to assess and identify young cricketers annually.”

Three most outstanding and deserving cricketers for this first cohort are: 14-year-old Ahmed Hussain from Peshawar, 12-year-old Ali Hasnain Badshah from Okara and 13-year-old Usman Khan from Peshawar. For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U13 and U16s, Ahmed scored 283 and 100 runs, respectively, besides taking 11 and eight wickets. Ali scored 274 runs for Southern Punjab in the U13 tournament, while Usman scored 172 runs and took five wickets for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U13.

 

[Titan24]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">So impressed with the standard from both teams of u16 Lahore schools semi final today - seeing Aitchison go through v Govt Pilot. A great contest - quality batting v quality spin! <br>Talent is everywhere in <a href="https://t.co/i7o1jJIgzN">pic.twitter.com/i7o1jJIgzN</a></p>— Grant Bradburn (@Beagleboy172) <a href="https://twitter.com/Beagleboy172/status/1441393109707919361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[MenInG]

Peshawar, 30 September 2021: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cricket Association is hosting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa School Cricket Championship 2021-22 from 7 October in 35 districts of the province. The 30-over matches will have more than 4000 players participating in 276 teams in the month-long event.

The age criteria for players’ participation in the tournament is, players born on or after 14 August 2005.

The tournament will be played at 69 venues across the province with 40 teams from private schools and 236 teams from government schools featuring. The teams have been divided into 76 pools with 510 matches to be played in the tournament.

 

[mastimasti]

I don't think any country has professional cricket at educational levels...unless you mean competitive cricket? I'm pretty sure Pakistan does from everything I have heard or read. Maybe it is not on the same level of England, Australia or South Africa but I'm sure it's there.

 

[moghul]

School cricket is very important but please schedule under 16 and under 19 training camps and if possible their tours also with minimum interruption to their studies. I hate to see almost all of our professional cricketers are school drop outs. Unlike cricketers of 70s and 80s, almost all of them went to college at least.

 

[moghul]

Peshawar, 30 September 2021: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cricket Association is hosting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa School Cricket Championship 2021-22 from 7 October in 35 districts of the province. The 30-over matches will have more than 4000 players participating in 276 teams in the month-long event.

The age criteria for players’ participation in the tournament is, players born on or after 14 August 2005.

The tournament will be played at 69 venues across the province with 40 teams from private schools and 236 teams from government schools featuring. The teams have been divided into 76 pools with 510 matches to be played in the tournament.

That's a great step in right direction.

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

Central Punjab School Cricket Final on PTV

I am watching this final on PTV sports.
Some really good spin bowling on and decent crowd.
Anyone watching ?

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

There is a guy named Momin bowling decent left arm wrist spin.
Can impart more revs but still very very young and nice loopy action.

 

[MenInG]

Karachi, 28 December 2021: An important meeting regarding promotion of cricket in Sindh was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah at Sindh Secretariat last week. The meeting was attended by Chairman Sindh Cricket Association Imran Husain, PCB Director High Performance Nadeem Khan, GM Domestic Cricket PCB Junaid Zia, Secretary Sports Department Akhtar Bhurgari, Secretary College Education Khalid Haider Shah and all the divisional commissioners.

In the meeting, the PCB officials announced that the PCB is going to organize Sindh School Cricket League in the province from February next year with the cooperation of Sindh government. In the first phase, 239 matches would be played in 30 districts of the province.

PCB officials added that 240 school level teams and 3850 players will be part of the Sindh School Cricket League. In the second phase, 24 matches will be played between 30 teams at divisional level. In the third phase, five matches will be played between six teams in Sindh Championship.

In the meeting, PCB officials added that the kind of talent that has emerged in cricket from Sindh is remarkable and PCB will now go to the district level in search of talent hunt. In the meeting, Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah said that Sindh government would provide full support to the PCB.

Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah further added that the Sindh School Cricket league would cost PKR 27 million which would be provided by Sindh government.

During the meeting it was decided that cricket grounds across the Sindh province would be refurbished and rehabilitated by the Sindh government in collaboration with the PCB. Sindh Government will provide PKR 91 million and PCB will spend PKR 57 million annually in the maintenance of 17 grounds.

Various cricket grounds in Karachi, Hyderabad, Badin, Jamshoro, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Shikarpur and Sukkur will be restored and developed and provided facilities like advance pitch roller, nets, hybrid pitch, dressing rooms and Manual/electric score boards in all these grounds.

https://www.pcb.com.pk/press-releas...sindh-schools-cricket-league-in-february.html

 

[finalfantasy7]

Karachi, 28 December 2021: An important meeting regarding promotion of cricket in Sindh was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah at Sindh Secretariat last week. The meeting was attended by Chairman Sindh Cricket Association Imran Husain, PCB Director High Performance Nadeem Khan, GM Domestic Cricket PCB Junaid Zia, Secretary Sports Department Akhtar Bhurgari, Secretary College Education Khalid Haider Shah and all the divisional commissioners.

In the meeting, the PCB officials announced that the PCB is going to organize Sindh School Cricket League in the province from February next year with the cooperation of Sindh government. In the first phase, 239 matches would be played in 30 districts of the province.

PCB officials added that 240 school level teams and 3850 players will be part of the Sindh School Cricket League. In the second phase, 24 matches will be played between 30 teams at divisional level. In the third phase, five matches will be played between six teams in Sindh Championship.

In the meeting, PCB officials added that the kind of talent that has emerged in cricket from Sindh is remarkable and PCB will now go to the district level in search of talent hunt. In the meeting, Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah said that Sindh government would provide full support to the PCB.

Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah further added that the Sindh School Cricket league would cost PKR 27 million which would be provided by Sindh government.

During the meeting it was decided that cricket grounds across the Sindh province would be refurbished and rehabilitated by the Sindh government in collaboration with the PCB. Sindh Government will provide PKR 91 million and PCB will spend PKR 57 million annually in the maintenance of 17 grounds.

Various cricket grounds in Karachi, Hyderabad, Badin, Jamshoro, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Shikarpur and Sukkur will be restored and developed and provided facilities like advance pitch roller, nets, hybrid pitch, dressing rooms and Manual/electric score boards in all these grounds.

https://www.pcb.com.pk/press-releas...sindh-schools-cricket-league-in-february.html

The PCB are NOW travelling - to sindh to scout - seriously ae they that poorly run

 

[The Googly]

The PCB are NOW travelling - to sindh to scout - seriously ae they that poorly run

Clearly things are now moving in the right direction.They are acting and school cricket is now being worked on. Good initiatives going on currently.

 

[MenInG]

A total of 270 boys from across the country will be engaged in National U13 and National U16 tournaments in Karachi and Multan from Friday, 14 January.

The participating players will have a massive and unprecedented incentive to pursue during the tournament as up to 40 top performers from the two events will secure year-long contracts with monthly retainers.

As these youngsters have the potential to become future stars and win games for Pakistan, the PCB will be investing in them at an early age to secure them financially while also developing their complete personality, including cricketing skills and providing education to them.

The players will be coached by a panel of high performance coaches in summer camps at the NHPC Lahore (National High Performance Centre) and academies across the country. Academic scholarships will also be provided to these players.

Twelve teams will participate in the National U16 One-Day Tournament 2021-22 (45 overs) which will be played at five venues in Multan from 14 to 25 January. The teams have been divided into two pools with all six Cricket Associations fielding two sides (one in each pool).

Balochistan, Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern, Sindh and Southern Punjab Whites will form Pool A while Balochistan, Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern, Sindh and Southern Punjab Blues will constitute Pool B.

The top sides from each pool will compete in the 25 January final which will be played at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

Six teams will participate in the National U13 One-Day Tournament 2021-22 (25 overs) which will be played at three venues in Karachi from 14 to 24 January.

One side each from Balochistan, Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern, Sindh and Southern Punjab will compete in the group stage, each team will play the other once in the round-robin format.

The top sides will proceed to compete in the 24 January final which will be played at the UBL Sports Complex, Karachi.

National U13 One-Day Tournament squads:

Balochistan: Abu Bakar, Adnan Ahmed, Ahsan Ullah, Asim Ur Rehman, Faiq Ali, Hamza Khan, Ikram Ullah, Khan Wali, Malik Awais, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Dawood, Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Suleman , Saleem Jan, Tufail Ahmed

Central Punjab: Arham Danish, Asad Naeem, Awais Zubair, Fasih Tousaeef, Hassan Ashraf, Hussnain Abbas, Muhammad Ali Sabir, Muhammad Essa Baloch, Rayyan Arshad, Sajjid Mir, Sarmad Nawaz, Sayyar Khan, Taj Muhammad, Ubaid Ullah, Zaryan Ali

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Abdullah, Adnan Khan, Akbar Ali, Atta Ullah, Ikram Ullah, Mohammad Sohail, Muhammad Adeel Khan, Muhammad Talha, Nafees Akhtar, Naveed, Rizwan Ali, Saeed Afridi, Shazad Ahmed, Shoaib, Zain Ul Abideen

Northern: Abdul Ahad, Abdul Munim, Abu Bakar Minhas, Akhtar Gull, Bilal Bashir, M. Asad Abdullah, M. Ismail Ranjha, M. Yousaf, Malik Muhammad Khizar, Muhammad Muneeb, Muhammad Musa Hasan, Muhammad Sohaib, Muhammad Zohaib Abbas, Saad Abraiz Abbasi, Salar Nazeer



Sindh: Abdul Hayee, Abdul Wahab, Abdullah (Sr), Adnan Nawaz, Ahsan Khan, Ali Sher, Ghulam Ahmed, Hammad Alam, Kifayat Ullah, M. Abdullah Javed, Muhammad Anas, Muhammad Azaan, Muhammad Khan, Sheikh Intiysaam, Syed Mohtashim



Southern Punjab: Abdullah Latif, Abdur Rehman, Ali Haider, Faizan Riyasat, Hasnain Sajid, Hayat Khan, M.Abdullah, M.Babar Arshad, M.Huzaifa, M.Qasim Ahmad, M.Usman, Maaz Ahmed, Mohsin Malik, Muhammad Umar, Talal Ahmed Khan



National U16 One-Day Tournament 2021-22 squads:


Balochistan Blues: Abdul Saboor, Anwar Shah, Bakhtiyar Khan, Gohar Khan, Hafeez Ullah, Innam Ullah, Mubashir Shah, Muhammad Adil, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Asfand, Musharaf Hussain, Sumair Ahmed, Syed Yasir Shah, Talha Shakir, Zohaib Khan



Balochistan Whites: Arslan Khan, Aurangzeb, Ayaz Gul, Eshrat Ul Ibbad, Faisal Razzaq, Imran Sadiq, Muhammad Shahid, Muhammad Umar, Muzamil Ali, Shehariyar Ahmed, Siraj Ahmed, Syed Waqas Ahmed, Umair Ahmed, Usman Ghani, Zakir Shah



Central Punjab Blues: Ali Hamza, Ali Raza, Areeb Arif, Faraz Ahmed, Farhan Yousaf, Ghulam Haider, Hamza Zahoor, Hunain Amir, M.Hammad Asif, Mohsin Ali, Momin Qamar, Muhammad Saim, Muhammad Usman, Obaid Shahid, Rana M.Sarfaraz Tariq



Central Punjab Whites: Aaliyan Suleman, Abu Suffiyan , Ahmed Yaar Khan, Ali Hasan Baloch, Ali Hassan , Ali Raza, Arslan Riz, Danish Saeed, Faham Ul Haq, Kaif Ali, M. Tayyab, M. Tayyab Arif, M. Yasin Bilal, Nauman Ali, Shahbaz Javaid

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Blues: Abdul Raheem, Abdur Rehman, Ahmed Hussain, Asfandyar, Hamza Izhar, Luqman Khan, M Umair Khan, Mian Yousaf Shah, Muhammad Ali, Shahzeb Khan, Usama Khan, Usman Khan, Zain Shah, Zubair Ahmed, Zulkarnain

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Whites: Abeel Khan, Adil Waheed, Ilham Khan, Khubib Khalil, M Awais, M Shayan, M.Ansar Ullah, M.Shoaib, Muhammad Haroon, Muhammad Umer, Muhammad Zubair, Naveed Ul Hassan, Riaz Ullah, Shayan, Usama Bangash

Northern Blues: Abbas Hussnain, Abu Zar, Bilal Ahmed, Hassan Ijaz, M. Hassan Khan, M.Waleed Iqbal, M.Zain Jameel, Muhammad Arshad, Muhammad Asim Kamal, Muhammad Bilal, Muhammad Nabeel, Murtaza Rehman, Raja Hamza Waheed, Shameer Ali, Syed Ali Mehdi

Northern Whites: Abdullah, Ali Ashfaq, Arsh Zaman, Arslan Ali, Awais Amin, Azaan Kabir, Hussnain Nadeem, Irshad Ahmed, M.Ammar Yasir, Muhammad Abdullah Sajid, Muhammad Ahmed, Muhammad Asmat Ullah, Shahbaz Khan Hurara, Shahmeer Nisar, Yazdaan Abbas Rizvi

Sindh Blues: Abdul Hadi, Abdul Moiz, Ahmed Muhiuddin, Farhan Zaman, Hameed Karim, Huzaifa Ahsan, M. Talha Khanji, Mawaz Zahid, Musa Azad, Naveed Ahmed Khan, Saad Baig, Saad Mahboob, Saif Ullah Khan, Sufyan Usmani, Yahya Shah

Sindh Whites: Abdul Rehman Khan, Haroon Arshad, Humza Qureshi, M Danish, M. Ahmed, Maaz Shah, Musab Ahmed, Nauman Ali, Owais Rehem Shah, Sajam Muhammad, Shahzad Khan, Shahzaib Ali, Shiraz Khan, Syed Rehan Ali Shah, Wajid Ali

Southern Punjab Blues: Haseeb Javed, Inam Ullah, M.Abdullah, M.Aqib Arshad, M.Jan Sher, M.Saqib, Muhammad Ahmed, Raja Shehroz, Rana Adeel Mushtaq, Sameer Ahmed Minhas, Sameer Akhtar, Shahzad Ahmed, Suleman Ahmed, Waleed Raza, Zain Arshad

Southern Punjab Whites: Abdul Rasool, Abdullah Tauqeer, Ali Husnain Badshah, Bilal Khan, Fahad Kashif, Haseeb Ahmed, M.Farhan, M.Hamid, M.Noman Asif, M.Umair, Rana Haseeb Nazim, Rao Kaleem Haider, Shahaz Saeed, Sohaib Akram, Taha Shabbir

 

[MenInG]

Karachi, 14 January 2022: The National U13 One-Day Tournament (30 overs) began in Karachi today. Southern Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh recorded wins in the opening round matches of the single-league format event.

At the KCCA Stadium, Central Punjab U13 posted 114 for seven in their allotted 30 overs. Fasih Touseef top-scored with 25 while M.Ali Sabir contributed 23 runs. Abdur Rehman and Mohsin Malik took two wickets each.

Southern Punjab U13 chased down the total for the loss of seven wickets in 29 overs. Talal Ahmed top-scored with 27 not out. Babar Arshad contributed 25, Ubaidullah took two wickets.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U13 recorded a 54-run win over Northern U13 at the State Bank Sports Complex. Batting first, Akbar Ali’s 50, Saeed Afridi’s 34 and Zain-ul-Abidin’s 33 took Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to a 217 for nine total in 30 overs.

Northern U13 were restricted to 163 for four in reply. Mohammad Sohaib scored an unbeaten 70, Muhammad Sohail took three wickets for 28 runs.

Sindh U13 overwhelmed Balochistan U13 by a massive 231-run margin in the match played at the UBL Sports Complex. Batting first, Sindh were well served by the pair of Abdullah and Abdullah Javed who scored 124 and 89 respectively in their 238-run second-wicket partnership. Abdullah’s 124 came off 76 balls and included 17 fours.

Sindh finished their 30 overs with 315 runs on the board for the loss of four wickets.

In reply, Balochistan were sent packing for 84 in 16.3 overs. Khan Wali top-scored with 34 while Muhammad Suleman scored an unbeaten 26.

Abdul Wahab and Muhammad Khan took three wickets each.

Scores in brief:

Southern Punjab U13 beat Central Punjab U13 by three wickets

Central Punjab U13 114 for 7, 30 overs (Fasih Touseef 25, M. Ali Sabir 23; Abdur Rehman 2-9, Mohsin Malik 2-18)

Southern Punjab U13 115 for 7, 29 overs (Talal Ahmed 27 not out, Babar Arshad 25; Taj Muhammad 2-16)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U13 beat Northern U13 by 54 runs

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U13 217 for 9, 30 overs (Akbar Ali 50, Saeed Afridi 34, Zain-ul-Abidin 33; Muhammad Ismail 3-46, Muhammad Zohaib 2-16)

Northern U13 163 for 4, 30 overs (Muhammad Sohaib 70 not out; Muhammad Sohail 3-28)

Sindh U13 beat Balochistan U13 by 231 runs

Sindh U13 315 for 4, 30 overs (Abdullah 124, Abdullah Javed 89; Faiq Ali 2-47)

Balochistan U13 84 all out, 16.3 overs (Khan Wali 34, Muhammad Suleman 26; Abdul Wahab 3-27, Muhammad Khan 3-30)

 

[transparent opacity]

National U16: Sindh, Southern Punjab and KP Whites record big wins

Multan, 14 January 2022: The National U16 One-Day Tournament (45 overs) began at three different Multan venues today. On the opening day of the 12-team event, Pool-A matches were staged with Sindh, Southern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Whites registering one-sided wins.

At the Head Muhammad Wala Stadium, Balochistan U16 Whites were bowled out for 120 in 37.4 overs. Muzamil Ali scored 50, the next best contributor was Siraj Ahmed with 36 runs. Shahzaib Ali, Wajid Ahmed and Sheraz Khan took three wickets each.

Sindh U16 Whites openers Haroon Arshad and Shehzad Khan went past the target without losing a wicket through their unbeaten 122-run partnership in only 14.2 overs. Haroon scored 61 off 43 balls (10 fours, one six) while Shehzad Khan scored 50 off 46 balls (seven fours, one six).

At the Zawari Cricket Ground, Southern Punjab U16 Whites were dismissed for 149 in 37.5 overs. Ali Hasnain Badshah top-scored with 68. Off-spinner Danish Saeed took five wickets for 16 runs in 8.5 overs while Ali Hassan took three.

In reply, Central Punjab U16 Whites were rolled over 68 in 25.2 overs. Faham-ul-Haq scored 18 while Muhammad Tayyab contributed 14. Abdul Rasool took three wickets for seven runs, Bilal Khan took three for 14.

At the Multan Cricket Stadium, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U16 Whites posted 249 for four in their 45 overs against Northern U16 Whites. Muhammad Shayan top-scored with 77 while Riazullah scored 70 runs. Muhammad Zubair hit an unbeaten 62.

Northern U16 Whites were rolled over for 143 in 40.2 overs in reply as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa record a thumping 106-run win.

Shameer Nisar top-scored with 29, Hasnain Nadim scored 28 runs. Muhammad Haroon took three wickets, Naveed-ul-Hasan and Adil Waheed took two wickets apiece.

Scores in brief:

Sindh U16 Whites beat Balochistan U16 Whites by 10 wickets

Balochistan U16 Whites 120 all out, 37.4 overs (Muzamil Ali 50, Siraj Ahmed 36; Shahzaib Ali 3-14, Wajid Ahmed 3-27, Sheraz Khan 3-37)

Sindh U16 Whites 122 for no loss, 14.2 overs (Haroon Arshad 61, Shehzad Khan 50)

Southern Punjab U16 Whites beat Central Punjab U16 Whites by 81 runs

Southern Punjab U16 Whites 149 all out, 37.5 overs (Ali Hasnan 68; Danish Saeed 5-16, Ali Hassan 3-25)

Central Punjab U16 Whites 68 all out, 25.2 overs (Faham-ul-Haq 18, Muhammad Tayyab 14; Abdul Rasool 3-7, Bilal Khan 3-14)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U16 Whites beat Northern U16 Whites by 106 runs

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa U16 Whites 249 for 4, 45 overs (Muhammad Shayan 77, Riazullah, Muhammad Zubair 62 not out; Irshad Ahmed 1-37)

Northern U16 Whites 143 all out, 40.2 overs (Shameer Nisar 29, Hasnain Nadeem 28 not out; Muhammad Haroon 3-45, Naveed-ul-Hasan 2-24)

 

[shamaan]

Same story in the Junior Ages Kyhber look like they have a good team alongside nothern whilst Balochistan look poor once again.

 

[MenInG]

Lahore, 7 April 2022: The final of Central Punjab College Championship 2021-22 will be played between Government College University Lahore and Faisalabad’s Divisional Public School at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday, 8 April.

The 40-over contest will be broadcast live on PTV Sports and live-streamed on the PCB’s official YouTube Channel and its first ball will be bowled at 1510. The day-night final will be played with pink ball and second innings will resume at 1910.

The winner will collect a cheque of PKR0.5million, while the losing side will receive PKR0.3million. Separately, Best Batter, Best Bowler, Best all-rounder and Best Wicketkeeper will receive PKR25,000.

The One-Day tournament began on 2 February 2021 in which 155 private and public colleges from 18 districts, falling under the jurisdiction of Central Punjab Cricket Association, participated. The tournament featured as many as 3,100 players, who played across 48 venues.

https://www.pcb.com.pk/press-release-detail/central-punjab-college-championship-final-on-friday.html

 

[Colorblind Genius]

Ramiz Raja should take his head out of his rear end to stop blabbering about playing with India - and spend all his energy and resources to put together a fundamental plan to reinstate a very good cricket set up at school level - but then again, I guess that's the only good thing coming out of SC decision to continue with NCV.
Now that IK will be removed from power, so will be Ramiz.

 

[MenInG]

Lahore, 8 April 2022: The final of Central Punjab Weekend School Championship 2021-22 will be played between Dare Arqam School Lahore and Faisalabad’s Divisional Public School at the Gaddafi Stadium from Saturday, 9 April.

The two-day pink-ball final will be broadcast live on PTV Sports and live-streamed on the PCB’s official YouTube Channel. The day-night fixture will start at 1600 and the first session will go on till 1800. The second session will be played between 1910 to 2110. The third and final session will begin at 2130 and will conclude at 2330.

The winner will collect a cheque of PKR0.5million, while the losing side will receive PKR0.3million. Separately, Best Batter, Best Bowler, Best all-rounder and Best Wicketkeeper will receive PKR25,000.

The Weekend School Championship commenced in October 2021, a total of 33 teams across the five districts namely Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha and Sialkot participated in the championship. As many as 660 players played the championship which was hosted across 29 venues.

https://www.pcb.com.pk/press-releas...school-championship-final-from-saturday.html/

 

[MenInG]

In order to revive school cricket across the country, the Pakistan Cricket Board and Bank Alfalah have entered a four-year partnership. The signing ceremony between the two parties was held today at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. As per the partnership agreement, the PCB and Bank Alfalah will jointly organise a school tournament each year in which 120 schools (to be shortlisted by the PCB) will participate.

The PCB and Bank Alfalah will conduct nationwide school drives for making program-based interventions to harness and nurture youth with a strong passion for cricket.

With the growth of the partnership over the four-year period, the school participation will increase to 900 schools across the country as part of PCB’s grand plan of developing and sustaining a quality schools competition that will not only identify but will also nurture and groom future cricket stars.

A total of 105 PCB designated and approved grounds will be used for school cricket tournaments in this four-year period.

PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja: “We have entered another exciting partnership for the development of cricket. School cricket was one of our strengths in the years gone by but unfortunately we were not able to sustain organised and effective school cricket systems in recent years.

“As such, this partnership is monumental for us and I want to thank Bank Alfalah for aligning with us in the much needed initiative. Our aim is not only to revive school cricket but also to develop and sustain it for a long period.

“So many of our superstars of the 70s, and 80s were products of school cricket. This partnership will develop and groom the superstars of tomorrow. In the last one year, we have made unprecedented investment in pathway and grassroots cricket and this investment will surely benefit Pakistan cricket for the next decade or two.”

President and CEO Bank Alfalah Atif Bajwa: “Bank Alfalah stands proud of its longstanding partnership with PCB and together we’ve continued to support the shared passion for cricket in all these years working in collaboration.

“The current performance of the cricket team is a testament to the devotion and determination of Pakistanis taking the sport to newer heights. At the heart of our partnership lies the idea to help build future cricketers and provide them with the opportunities to shine at the national as well as international level.”

 

[Markhor]

In order to revive school cricket across the country, the Pakistan Cricket Board and Bank Alfalah have entered a four-year partnership. The signing ceremony between the two parties was held today at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. As per the partnership agreement, the PCB and Bank Alfalah will jointly organise a school tournament each year in which 120 schools (to be shortlisted by the PCB) will participate.

The PCB and Bank Alfalah will conduct nationwide school drives for making program-based interventions to harness and nurture youth with a strong passion for cricket.

With the growth of the partnership over the four-year period, the school participation will increase to 900 schools across the country as part of PCB’s grand plan of developing and sustaining a quality schools competition that will not only identify but will also nurture and groom future cricket stars.

A total of 105 PCB designated and approved grounds will be used for school cricket tournaments in this four-year period.

PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja: “We have entered another exciting partnership for the development of cricket. School cricket was one of our strengths in the years gone by but unfortunately we were not able to sustain organised and effective school cricket systems in recent years.

“As such, this partnership is monumental for us and I want to thank Bank Alfalah for aligning with us in the much needed initiative. Our aim is not only to revive school cricket but also to develop and sustain it for a long period.

“So many of our superstars of the 70s, and 80s were products of school cricket. This partnership will develop and groom the superstars of tomorrow. In the last one year, we have made unprecedented investment in pathway and grassroots cricket and this investment will surely benefit Pakistan cricket for the next decade or two.”

President and CEO Bank Alfalah Atif Bajwa: “Bank Alfalah stands proud of its longstanding partnership with PCB and together we’ve continued to support the shared passion for cricket in all these years working in collaboration.

“The current performance of the cricket team is a testament to the devotion and determination of Pakistanis taking the sport to newer heights. At the heart of our partnership lies the idea to help build future cricketers and provide them with the opportunities to shine at the national as well as international level.”

Great news. May not produce instant results but programmes like this pay off in long run.

 

[MenInG]

The Punjab School Cricket Championship 2022 will conclude on Wednesday with Lahore’s Dar-e-Arqam taking on Faisalabad’s Divisional Public School in the final at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium.

The 40-over match will be broadcast live on PTV Sports and will be live-streamed on PCB YouTube channel. The toss will take place at 0930, while the first ball will be bowled at 1000.

The winning team will receive PKR 0.3 million, while the runner-up will get PKR0.2million.

The Punjab School Cricket Championship 2022 began in the second week of September in which 7,920 players had featured and 881 matches were held during the course of three months.