The latest fiasco in Pakistan cricket, once again at the hands of India with a dismal defeat in the Emerging Players Cup is another reminder of Pakistan domestic cricket's inability to produce international-ready talent. We can point to a lack of home internationals, poor selections, tactical errors but this is a sideshow to the fact our Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is barely above club standard featuring players who should NOT play First Class Cricket. I am going to pull up two random scorecards from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy to serve as a sample in highlighting the appalling standards. I am aware international duty and A team series has weakened the teams somewhat but this is meant to be the next batch of talent. This was eye-opening even for a long-time domestic cricket critic like me:
1) Lahore Blues vs WAPDA (Nov 19-22 2018)
Lahore Blues XI:
Zubair Malik, Mohammad Ilyas, Zafar Gohar, Irfan Haider, Saad Nasim, Ahmed Akram, Farhan Khan, Bilawal Iqbal, Zia Shehzad, Asfand Mehran, Aizaz Cheema.
Zafar Gohar is batting at 3 here which tells you everything. Not a SINGLE batsman averaging above 30. The top six have 148 FC matches between them - but Zafar Gohar and Saad Nasim account for 113 of them. I'd keep only Zafar Gohar from this rabble on a FC contract. I appreciate Aizaz Cheema is still taking wickets but how does a 38 year old seamer help Pakistan cricket's future ? Not even a club level side.
WAPDA XI:
Zahid Mansoor, Bismillah Khan, Muhammad Akhlaq, Mohammad Saleem, Salman Butt (c), Abubakar Khan, Ali Shan, Khalid Usman, Zulfiqar Babar, Sadaif Mehdi, Waqar Malik.
Absolute garbage. Zahid Mansoor is 28 years old and has played 89 FC matches and still averages 28. Bismillah Khan is being played as a specialist opener and averages 25. Muhammad Akhlaq has played 17 matches and averages 26 with not a single hundred. Mohammad Saleem is 40 YEARS OLD and averages 26 after 22 matches - so much for the sainted Departments that are more meritocratic than the Regions. Salman Butt is your best player though doesn't open himself. Abubakar Khan is handling the 2nd new ball at 6 with his mighty average of 21. The bowling is carried by Uncle Zulf and an ageing Khalid Usman. Only Butt, Zulf and Usman merit FC contracts from this sorry bunch, but Butt shouldn't be captaining for obvious reasons.
2) Habib Bank Limited vs National Bank Pakistan (Oct 19-22 2018)
HBL XI: Mohammad Waqas, Jamal Anwar, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Rameez Aziz, Zohaib Khan, Saad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Khurram Shehzad.
Bowling is okay but only Farhat and Akmal are batsmen of any calibre in this team, along with the absent Abid Ali. Not encouraging given this is meant to be the side that goes on to WIN the Trophy.
NBP XI: Ali Asad, Ahsan Ali, Rameez Raja, Kamran Ghulam, Naved Sarwar, Umar Siddiq, Qaiser Abbas, Hammad Azam, Ataullah, Ali Manzoor, Atif Jabbar.
Apart from Ali Manzoor with a FC bowling avg of 38, the bowling is okay but given the standard of batting how seriously can you take their numbers ? Ahsan Ali was another member of PP hype brigade who has done nothing of note in FC cricket. Two decent all-rounders in Kamran Ghulam and Hammad Azam, but what does it say about your specialist batsmen when Ghulam is your highest averaging batter ? From this XI, I'd probably keep five but overall barely a Division Two County side.
That's just two examples. Seriously, here's a task for posters. Go pull up ANY scorecard from this season and have a look at some of these lineups and go one by one - have a look at the numbers of these players and ask yourselves THIS is our First Class cricket ? This is the next step below Test cricket ?
It's time to move to eight regional teams and make QEA Trophy matches of near Test match intensity as they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Reduce the playing pool by 50% - most of this lot should NOT have FC contracts. Enough of this guff about "providing a living for players" - Pakistan Cricket is NOT a Welfare State. If you aren't good enough - tough luck. Go back to school and get another job to make a living, and stop leeching off our cricket. Pakistan may be a country of 200m but only 11 can play - if you want that green cap you EARN it with the FC cricket serving as a harsh filter. Only then will we improve our rankings.
