The importance of county cricket for Pakistan players

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Azhar Mahmood in his latest blog for PP


"It was good to see Umar Akmal playing some county cricket for Leicestershire but what I would like to see is more Pakistani cricketers playing four day cricket in England. It will greatly help their technique and prepare them for the assignment of playing in conditions that are not familiar to them and particularly assist them where the ball is seaming around. I would urge the PCB to encourage Pakistani players to try and get over to the UK to play some four day cricket whenever possible as this can greatly benefit Pakistani players and the team as a whole."

I would have thought IPL was the place to learn cricket!

 

[The_KING]

Azhar is right. We need to send our players to play FC cricket in England. It will not not only improve their techniques but also their temperament. No point in sending our players to play in the T20 leagues. It won't help them.

 

[AlphaFighter]

Unless the Pakistani players have Western passports and come under the Kolpack category, County cricket especially the 4 day format is very tough. In the past counties wanted both bowlers and batsmen for the 4 day versions and ODI versions and they would be allowed to play 2-3 international players per county team. The situation has changed now where very team can only play one international player. Also county teams only want international players for T-20 and ODI cricket and are more interested in bowlers rather than batsmen. The odds are against a county deciding to select and pick Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq e.t.c for 4 day cricket.

If anything our former players should be helping the players out and using their contacts to help them get county stints i.e. the likes of Wasim, Waqar, Mushtaq, Saqlain, Azhar e.t.c. Wasim helped Junaid Khan get an opportunity in Lancashire.

 

[KB]

One of the reasons that Pakistan became a far better team in the 1970s and 1980s was because of the number of players that actually played county cricket.

 

[cricketAXEpert]

Azhar Mahmood in his latest blog for PP


"It was good to see Umar Akmal playing some county cricket for Leicestershire but what I would like to see is more Pakistani cricketers playing four day cricket in England. It will greatly help their technique and prepare them for the assignment of playing in conditions that are not familiar to them and particularly assist them where the ball is seaming around. I would urge the PCB to encourage Pakistani players to try and get over to the UK to play some four day cricket whenever possible as this can greatly benefit Pakistani players and the team as a whole."

I would have thought IPL was the place to learn cricket!

IPL is no good, look at India's performance over seas in the test matches.

 

[#GreenRoars]

Yes, Pakistan players should play county cricket

 

[Pete Rose]

The case is being during this ashes as well for the importance of county cricket for Australian batsmen as well.
It's unfortunate that most stints are short term and only for t20's or odi's.
Still, I suppose you have to start somewhere.

 

[Araash]

Lack of Pakistan players in county cricket

Back then, county teams used to sign up foreign players and that was extremely useful for those players specially coming from Asian teams like Pakistan to get experience playing on green tops and overcast conditions.

For the past many years I haven't see any Pakistani players playing county cricket. I think Younis Khan was the last Pak player to play county. This probably can explain to certain extent the abject failure of our current crop of batsmen when facing top quality pace attack outside the dusty bowls of UAE.

Have the rules been changed that local teams are not bringing on-board foreign players to play county cricket?

 

[YousafTheBeast]

Azhar Ali was playing last season and done quite well
Mohammad Abbas was there too and done well.
Not many batsmen though.

 

[Sher Khan]

Amir for Essex was superb.