Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,826
This is from Wasim Khan's TV interview which has been posted in full here but the changes to domestic cricket deserve a separate thread.
New first-class cricket system in sync with Pakistan's international commitments
"The new PCB constitution is sitting in the PM's office, once he approves it we're ready to roll it out. There are 6 provinces with 2nd XIs, so your 66 best players are playing FC cricket. We're doing a big programme around wickets at the moment, if your wickets aren't great, it doesn't matter how much training you do. We had 25 scores of under 100 in the last 3 years, you're not going to get great players, guys who can bat time and bowlers who work hard for their wickets. We need to get the wickets right. There's a 2nd XI inter-city competition underneath and then club cricket"
"When you speak to people, they say there's too many players in the game which is why we don't have competition. When you start to address the FC game, they say what about all the people who will lose out? When you say you'll look after them, but no, you can't do that, you have to get cricket right. So we don't want anyone to lose out. That's why it's important. Players will get paid, there will be contracts, you can earn up to maybe 2 million rupees playing for the province sides, players will get paid for 2nd XI city cricket as well and then we'll have 6 high performance centres. So there will be a psychologist, nutritionist, physio and trainer sitting at all of those. And whatever we do at international level, the support staff will be responsible for delegating the same tasks to the HP centres. The same programmes will be run there as international level. When players come to the FC level, they need to understand what's required, you don't educate them about that when they play international cricket, it's too late"
"We need to look at our coaching as always. It's not always about techniques, it's about what goes on in the head. Why do people keep saying we bolt under pressure? It's not a good thing when people say our international team is unpredictable, mercurial. Is that a tag that we're proud of? Of course not. Sports psychology isn't a taboo anymore, many sportsmen and sportswomen use them now. We need to get them in at a young age, from 16, we need to look at the methods so we don't have an all or nothing approach"
"There's 2 or 3 models you can have with a Chief Selector. One thing you can have is 3-4 selectors and they go out every now and again. If we go with 6 provinces, why can't we have a system where the Chief Selector uses those 6 head coaches as his eyes and ears? So you don't have a formal selection committee. Coaches will write reports about oppositions' players, they don't write about their own players so there's no pressure from above. There's different models we can use. Why can't we do things differently, why do we have to stick with the structure? Think outside the box sometimes"
"There's a lot of work that people within the PCB have done on the regions' constitution so as soon as we get the approval from the PM, we'll start. We're looking to start the season on 12th September so we have 6 weeks, everything is ready to hit the road. One thing that I'll say is that your schedule of first-class cricket has to support international cricket. End of September, we have 2 Tests against Sri Lanka so we'll have 4 4 rounds of FC matches leading into that. Middle of October, we'll have the domestic T20 league for 2 reasons. One is for the PSL draft, second is for the T20 series in Australia in November. The QEA Trophy will be split up. We need guys going into Tests having played some red-ball cricket. Going into T20 series having played T20. You might have a guy who hits 3 80s in the T20 league and then he can be selected for the national team for the upcoming series. There's a narrative for everything we're going to do going forward"
"The way the constitutions are set up, nepotism is going to be very difficult. The PCB have looked very hard at how we create something so we don't have that. We know some of the issues that we've had with clubs in days gone by. We're never going to eradicate everything but we've got to take most of it away. There will be independent people sitting on some of these boards, business people who can run it as a business. You have your impartial selection committees sitting there, so there aren't people with vested interests"
"When you go down from 16 to 6, there will be competition. For merit, we need to make sure that the people running the cricket are the right type of people, so we'll have a criteria in place. It may take 2 years for the system to be properly up and running, I believe it can work for us but we've gotta make it work"
"We need to use the clubs that are already performing and where there are already facilities. We are investing a lot in infrastructure. Even in FC grounds, like Pindi, Multan - we're looking to have the full PSL in Pakistan so we're looking at 4 venues. We know the clubs that operate and we know the ones that don't do anything. There's 3000 clubs registered across the country. There's probably 1400-1500 who actually operate how they should so we've identified them in terms of their structure, coaching, match pay etc. Those who haven't been doing anything will be removed from the system"
Sending players overseas early to prepare for tours
"We go to Australia in November. What happens is that we get caught short as soon as we go to Australia, so we're sending our batsmen 4 weeks early to go and practice at the WACA. We'll sort out the facilities. We're planning 12 months ahead for all of our tours. The batting coach will be with them. We're playing in England in Jul/Aug next year, so we need to get as many guys playing County Cricket as possible. We might have to invest in the top 3-4 guys, we'll say to a county that this player will only cost you this much and we'll subsidise the rest. It's an investment for us, you'll get the likes of Imam, Shan, Babar playing County Cricket for 3-4 months. When the England series comes, they'll be ready for it"
Under-13s/16s/19s
"Our U19s just went to SA and won 7-0 against a good SA team so we have a few stars. The draft system for the FC teams, we have to make sure those U19 guys are given opportunities. They have to be in that system. If they're playing for Pakistan U19s, they're our very best U19 cricketers. If they go away and don't play FC cricket, they get lost in the system and that happens a lot, we have to make sure that doesn't happen. U13s, U16s at the club level, making sure with trainers and physios, they should filter down in the province and go out to the U13 and U16 camps. We have to look at coaching as well, are we coaching the modern way?"
"If you go to England, Australia or India, the Under-16s aren't selected on the basis of open trials. We acknowledge that there needs to be a system for these age levels. We need to monitor the clubs but when you have so many, it's hard. When you have fewer clubs, you can monitor the activities"
From NCA to HPC and succession planning
"The NCA will be rebranded as a National High-Performance Centre. If you've got 6 Performances Centres, you need that HPC. We're looking at the food, we'll bring in sports nutritionists to make sure that every bit of food that's served is what athletes should be having, not biryani, daal chawal. It's got to be difficult to get into the HPC, you go to Australia and you can't get in, you have to make an appointment. We go to ours and it's difficult because there's ex-players who come and use it etc. We have to get people to think differently, there's a lot of work ahead"
"One thing we haven't been good at is succession planning. People are saying get rid of Mickey, bring Pakistani coaches etc. but you look at India's system. They have physios, assistant coaches working with the main coaches for 3-4 years, getting an opportunity. When Greg Chappell and Gary Kirsten were there, they'd bring their best coaches to work with them. Their vision was that their whole system should be their own players in different roles. We need to do that with our people. The 6 coaches who work with the provinces should have this in their mind that they'll get opportunities if they work hard"
"We had Bob Woolmer as coach, Waqar Younis, Richard Pybus, Dav Whatmore. How many coaches have we gone through? Fundamentally, the issues haven't gone away and that's due to the system. You can have 10 of the most brilliant coaches but if the system isn't right in terms of how the players prepare, look after themselves as professional athletes, it doesn't matter who you have. You lose a series and everybody wants to call for people's heads"
Mandatory participation in domestic cricket + threat from T20 leagues
"The players playing in England etc. will have to come back to play in the FC games before the SL series. We had one or two requests from players asking whether they can stay in England, we told them no, there's a new system in place and you need to play to be available for selection in September. Why can't we create three-dimensional cricketers instead of red-ball or white-ball specialists? With T20s, children don't want to play red-ball cricket. T20 is a wonderful product but it's also a threat to Test cricket. We want red-ball cricket to matter, it's where people remember you and the health check of a nation is how you perform in Test cricket. The Championship is starting and we want to be in the final at Lord's, but it's not going to just happen. We need to improve our performances"
"Our players play in the PSL and two other tournaments which is standard for the other countries as well. What we don't what to do is to get into a situation where you have freelance cricketers, the de Villiers and the Chris Gayles of this world. Their countries have lost them, why should I play 35 weeks a year, I can play 15 weeks a year and earn. Good luck to them, it's good money. But we need to look at managing workloads, looking at better pay so that it makes it less attractive for them to go. I want our guys to play the best and to earn their value"
"The reason why it's important to get sponsors for the provinces is because it means it's less money we spend on FC cricket so we can invest it in players' salaries. That's the business plan of the Chairman and myself. If we get a sponsor who covers the cost of running FC cricket in Central Punjab for a season, that's money we were going to spend, we can pull it away and include it in the budget and include more training camps etc. We're sending our coaches every year to England and Australia, umpires as well, to go and learn from the academies and the different environments. This is investment in the future of our game. We want to send our young players to academies, the best 17 or 18 year-olds, go and train at Warwickshire for 4 weeks, go and live on your own, learn about life, that's education for them"
New first-class cricket system in sync with Pakistan's international commitments
"The new PCB constitution is sitting in the PM's office, once he approves it we're ready to roll it out. There are 6 provinces with 2nd XIs, so your 66 best players are playing FC cricket. We're doing a big programme around wickets at the moment, if your wickets aren't great, it doesn't matter how much training you do. We had 25 scores of under 100 in the last 3 years, you're not going to get great players, guys who can bat time and bowlers who work hard for their wickets. We need to get the wickets right. There's a 2nd XI inter-city competition underneath and then club cricket"
"When you speak to people, they say there's too many players in the game which is why we don't have competition. When you start to address the FC game, they say what about all the people who will lose out? When you say you'll look after them, but no, you can't do that, you have to get cricket right. So we don't want anyone to lose out. That's why it's important. Players will get paid, there will be contracts, you can earn up to maybe 2 million rupees playing for the province sides, players will get paid for 2nd XI city cricket as well and then we'll have 6 high performance centres. So there will be a psychologist, nutritionist, physio and trainer sitting at all of those. And whatever we do at international level, the support staff will be responsible for delegating the same tasks to the HP centres. The same programmes will be run there as international level. When players come to the FC level, they need to understand what's required, you don't educate them about that when they play international cricket, it's too late"
"We need to look at our coaching as always. It's not always about techniques, it's about what goes on in the head. Why do people keep saying we bolt under pressure? It's not a good thing when people say our international team is unpredictable, mercurial. Is that a tag that we're proud of? Of course not. Sports psychology isn't a taboo anymore, many sportsmen and sportswomen use them now. We need to get them in at a young age, from 16, we need to look at the methods so we don't have an all or nothing approach"
"There's 2 or 3 models you can have with a Chief Selector. One thing you can have is 3-4 selectors and they go out every now and again. If we go with 6 provinces, why can't we have a system where the Chief Selector uses those 6 head coaches as his eyes and ears? So you don't have a formal selection committee. Coaches will write reports about oppositions' players, they don't write about their own players so there's no pressure from above. There's different models we can use. Why can't we do things differently, why do we have to stick with the structure? Think outside the box sometimes"
"There's a lot of work that people within the PCB have done on the regions' constitution so as soon as we get the approval from the PM, we'll start. We're looking to start the season on 12th September so we have 6 weeks, everything is ready to hit the road. One thing that I'll say is that your schedule of first-class cricket has to support international cricket. End of September, we have 2 Tests against Sri Lanka so we'll have 4 4 rounds of FC matches leading into that. Middle of October, we'll have the domestic T20 league for 2 reasons. One is for the PSL draft, second is for the T20 series in Australia in November. The QEA Trophy will be split up. We need guys going into Tests having played some red-ball cricket. Going into T20 series having played T20. You might have a guy who hits 3 80s in the T20 league and then he can be selected for the national team for the upcoming series. There's a narrative for everything we're going to do going forward"
"The way the constitutions are set up, nepotism is going to be very difficult. The PCB have looked very hard at how we create something so we don't have that. We know some of the issues that we've had with clubs in days gone by. We're never going to eradicate everything but we've got to take most of it away. There will be independent people sitting on some of these boards, business people who can run it as a business. You have your impartial selection committees sitting there, so there aren't people with vested interests"
"When you go down from 16 to 6, there will be competition. For merit, we need to make sure that the people running the cricket are the right type of people, so we'll have a criteria in place. It may take 2 years for the system to be properly up and running, I believe it can work for us but we've gotta make it work"
"We need to use the clubs that are already performing and where there are already facilities. We are investing a lot in infrastructure. Even in FC grounds, like Pindi, Multan - we're looking to have the full PSL in Pakistan so we're looking at 4 venues. We know the clubs that operate and we know the ones that don't do anything. There's 3000 clubs registered across the country. There's probably 1400-1500 who actually operate how they should so we've identified them in terms of their structure, coaching, match pay etc. Those who haven't been doing anything will be removed from the system"
Sending players overseas early to prepare for tours
"We go to Australia in November. What happens is that we get caught short as soon as we go to Australia, so we're sending our batsmen 4 weeks early to go and practice at the WACA. We'll sort out the facilities. We're planning 12 months ahead for all of our tours. The batting coach will be with them. We're playing in England in Jul/Aug next year, so we need to get as many guys playing County Cricket as possible. We might have to invest in the top 3-4 guys, we'll say to a county that this player will only cost you this much and we'll subsidise the rest. It's an investment for us, you'll get the likes of Imam, Shan, Babar playing County Cricket for 3-4 months. When the England series comes, they'll be ready for it"
Under-13s/16s/19s
"Our U19s just went to SA and won 7-0 against a good SA team so we have a few stars. The draft system for the FC teams, we have to make sure those U19 guys are given opportunities. They have to be in that system. If they're playing for Pakistan U19s, they're our very best U19 cricketers. If they go away and don't play FC cricket, they get lost in the system and that happens a lot, we have to make sure that doesn't happen. U13s, U16s at the club level, making sure with trainers and physios, they should filter down in the province and go out to the U13 and U16 camps. We have to look at coaching as well, are we coaching the modern way?"
"If you go to England, Australia or India, the Under-16s aren't selected on the basis of open trials. We acknowledge that there needs to be a system for these age levels. We need to monitor the clubs but when you have so many, it's hard. When you have fewer clubs, you can monitor the activities"
From NCA to HPC and succession planning
"The NCA will be rebranded as a National High-Performance Centre. If you've got 6 Performances Centres, you need that HPC. We're looking at the food, we'll bring in sports nutritionists to make sure that every bit of food that's served is what athletes should be having, not biryani, daal chawal. It's got to be difficult to get into the HPC, you go to Australia and you can't get in, you have to make an appointment. We go to ours and it's difficult because there's ex-players who come and use it etc. We have to get people to think differently, there's a lot of work ahead"
"One thing we haven't been good at is succession planning. People are saying get rid of Mickey, bring Pakistani coaches etc. but you look at India's system. They have physios, assistant coaches working with the main coaches for 3-4 years, getting an opportunity. When Greg Chappell and Gary Kirsten were there, they'd bring their best coaches to work with them. Their vision was that their whole system should be their own players in different roles. We need to do that with our people. The 6 coaches who work with the provinces should have this in their mind that they'll get opportunities if they work hard"
"We had Bob Woolmer as coach, Waqar Younis, Richard Pybus, Dav Whatmore. How many coaches have we gone through? Fundamentally, the issues haven't gone away and that's due to the system. You can have 10 of the most brilliant coaches but if the system isn't right in terms of how the players prepare, look after themselves as professional athletes, it doesn't matter who you have. You lose a series and everybody wants to call for people's heads"
Mandatory participation in domestic cricket + threat from T20 leagues
"The players playing in England etc. will have to come back to play in the FC games before the SL series. We had one or two requests from players asking whether they can stay in England, we told them no, there's a new system in place and you need to play to be available for selection in September. Why can't we create three-dimensional cricketers instead of red-ball or white-ball specialists? With T20s, children don't want to play red-ball cricket. T20 is a wonderful product but it's also a threat to Test cricket. We want red-ball cricket to matter, it's where people remember you and the health check of a nation is how you perform in Test cricket. The Championship is starting and we want to be in the final at Lord's, but it's not going to just happen. We need to improve our performances"
"Our players play in the PSL and two other tournaments which is standard for the other countries as well. What we don't what to do is to get into a situation where you have freelance cricketers, the de Villiers and the Chris Gayles of this world. Their countries have lost them, why should I play 35 weeks a year, I can play 15 weeks a year and earn. Good luck to them, it's good money. But we need to look at managing workloads, looking at better pay so that it makes it less attractive for them to go. I want our guys to play the best and to earn their value"
"The reason why it's important to get sponsors for the provinces is because it means it's less money we spend on FC cricket so we can invest it in players' salaries. That's the business plan of the Chairman and myself. If we get a sponsor who covers the cost of running FC cricket in Central Punjab for a season, that's money we were going to spend, we can pull it away and include it in the budget and include more training camps etc. We're sending our coaches every year to England and Australia, umpires as well, to go and learn from the academies and the different environments. This is investment in the future of our game. We want to send our young players to academies, the best 17 or 18 year-olds, go and train at Warwickshire for 4 weeks, go and live on your own, learn about life, that's education for them"
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