Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,826
"There comes a time for people to move on. PCB has fresh ideas, there will be changes" : Wasim Khan
PCB CEO Wasim Khan at a press conference today:
MCC is touring Pakistan in February, we have spoken to them over the last 2-3 months. They are coming to Pakistan after 50 years, it will be a tour of Lahore. Sangakkara will captain the team. It's a major coup for us that a high-profile team will come. We will announce their itinerary and squad in January, 2020.
The whole nation is uniting for cricket, you'll have differences and opinion about PCB but we're all united on bringing cricket back to Pakistan.
We've been speaking to South Africa about playing 3 T20Is in Pakistan towards the end of March. The Board have signed off on it, we're waiting for the South Africa players to confirm they are happy. They have had some leadership changes but insha'Allah we'll have good news for that in the next few weeks.
We will have the PSL at 4 venues in Pakistan: Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi. The venues will be ready, and we'll be ready to take on the challenge.
I am very happy with some of the things we achieved in Australia. Australia will come to play in Pakistan in 2022 which was a part of the FTP. They were due to play 2 Test matches and 3 T20Is, we've agreed that they will play 3 Test matches. It's important we play more Test cricket so there will be 3 Tests. We've agreed in principle that the Test series between 2023 and 2031 will all consist of 3 Test matches, and we will play more often. We play them every 3-4 years, but our wish is to play against them more often on a home and away basis.
The Pakistan A team will be called ‘The Shaheens’ moving forward. The other thing I discussed with Cricket Australia is about A tours. We are looking at an arrangement where our team plays in Australia and they come here and play. Before 2022, we're hoping they will send an A team to Pakistan. I'm looking at a 4 year cycle for A tours with Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand. We go to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but we don't play the other big nations as much. We need to get our players ready for conditions that they face across the world and we need to expose our guys to conditions in those countries.
I've spoken to NSW about a scholarship programme to get some of our best boys and girls an opportunity to go training and play club cricket in Sydney, practice and go to the High-Performance Centre. I visited the Brisbane HP Centre and that's something that we should be aiming to emulate, that should be our vision and goal of what a HP Centre should look like.
We planned and implemented a new domestic structure in 7 months. We had visits by the CA, ECB, Cricket Ireland as well. All this happens because of relationships. We're now as Pakistan cricket, are building our credibility around the world. People don't just come and agree to things, you have to have dialogues, discussions and debates to make things happen.
We will increase the number of domestic games we live stream. We will look at improving wickets. We have Andy Atkinson of the ICC coming on January 3rd, he will assess our wickets and run workshops for the groundsmen and help us develop that. He will keep visiting over the next 6-8 months to help us develop our wickets.
We have spent 3.6 billion rupees on our domestic structure over the past 3 years, but we can't sustain that over a long period of time. We're in conversations with sponsors and in the next 3 months, we will be announcing sponsors for the cricket associations which will allow us to spend some of that money elsewhere. We have plans for developing the NCA and these are the things we have to be investing in, the grassroots, schools and club cricket. The money we save from spending in the domestic structure, part of it can go towards the grassroots.
I stepped down as the Chairman of the Cricket Committee. Despite a lot of frantic calls from people, I hadn't resigned as the CEO which some people thought. It was always intended when Mohsin Khan stepped down that I would do it on an interim basis. It's not ideal if your CEO is also your Cricket Committee Chairman. I will, however, remain on the Committee and it remains an advisory committee to the board. We're looking at 2-3 members to be part of this including a new, independent chairman and an ex-cricketer. We want to revamp the committee and have the next meeting before the Bangladesh series and plan a calendar year where we meet 4 times. Wasim Akram will stay on the committee, Urooj Mumtaz will also remain as the Women's representative. We will be looking at other reps. Currently, we have too many people from PCB there so that will change and it will be ready for January.
The Test team is based on the Head Coach's vision. Sarfaraz had significant contributions and we haven't seen the last of him, he's a good man and he's gotten fit and he will perform and knock on the door again. Azhar has just started as captain. It was a tough initiation in Australia, we've seen what's happening to New Zealand now. It's a hard place to tour. I have no doubt that his performances will pick up. To say this is make or break for him is a bit premature.
We can't do anything about India right now, we will keep dialogue options open with BCCI. Ultimately, they need permission from the government, so our focus is on teams we can play but we never lose hope, we hope one day we'll play India again whether it's at a neutral venue or Pakistan but at the moment it's out of our control.
I'm very aware of the politics in Pakistan cricket. I'm here because of Pakistan cricket and I've come here to contribute to Pakistan cricket. We've managed to get things done.
I can't speak too much about investigations at NCA. What was going to happen first was a suspension followed by an investigation but he (Ali Zia) decided to resign. That doesn't mean the investigation won't happen.
Regarding Mudassar Nazar, when I joined PCB, he made it clear he probably wanted to do 1 more year. With what's happened with Ali Zia, I think Mudassar wanted to make his position clear because it takes time to find replacements. He wanted to make sure there was no speculation about his position so he announced it 6 months in advance.
We will have an update about the PSL Executive in the next few days.
Our relationship with the PSL franchise owners is a positive one, we don't agree on everything but that's part and parcel of it. We're pretty much there in terms of the fees, we're still waiting for 1-2 outstanding payments to reveal the revenue shares for the PSL owners but we're nearly there. The process is something we need to learn from, we need to be better and quicker. This year hasn't been acceptable, we've been too slow to provide details around revenue shares etc., they are big investors in the game in Pakistan and we're thankful and respect them. Both sides need to be better.
We haven't had a psychologist with our team recently. It's about pressure, one thing that has always been said about our team is that once the pressure starts, we can't cope. We have talented cricketers but in any modern sport, you need support, you need a psychologist and we're talking about that and we will bring someone in.
We are developing HPCs for the Cricket Associations. They will have psychologists working with players coming through, the A tours, U19s, U16s. The days or not having psychologists, thinking that talent alone is enough, those days are gone.
Our 6 CA head coaches work closely with Nadeem Khan who is a selection coordinator. He is working closely with Misbah as well and now majority of the burden sits with him, he provides information to Misbah.
Wasim Akram won't be Chairman of the Cricket Committee.
We have spoken to Australia already and we are in talks with England, NZ and SA regarding exchange programmes, it's important for us to give young players exposure. I have spoken to Leicestershire and a couple of other counties regarding pre-season training. Our facilities at NCA are good, this will happen slowly slowly. The MCC tour will bring a lot of credibility to Pakistan. After that, we are hopeful that counties and teams from other countries will come. We are taking small steps, you can't do it all at once.
The new structure will take time to have effect, one year won't change things. Our previous structure was there for many years and it failed. We are ranked 8/6 in Tests/ODIs. This has happened over a period of time. We are moving in the right direction now.
There comes a time for people to move on. The PCB has fresh ideas and there will be changes, more changes going forward.
Nothing has been proven against Wasim Akram, he remains a legend of the game in Pakistan as does Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Waqar Younis, etc. These guys are icons, you go to any country and people talk about them and what they have achieved. I think we should continue to respect them.
Azhar Ali has been captain for 2-3 months, is it fair to judge him on that time period? Give him time as you want to give time to the coaches, as I wanted time when I came into this position. You need time to do something.
Misbah's decisions in terms of selection are up to him. Accountability is with one person, give him time and then judge him.
Regarding the T20 performances, it's not good enough. It's not acceptable that we're losing matches. Australia was a tough tour, but we lost both matches by an innings. We're not blind to all of this, we're looking at these things. Let him operate for a year and we'll see where we after that.
We are in talks with departments regarding keeping a competition going between them. We will find a window for it for maybe 2-3 weeks where they can play a department competition, for example. The departments have been positive about supporting and sponsoring cricket. A number of them will be involved moving forward. In 2-3 months, we'll be in a position to announce that.
We are in correspondence with Bangladesh. They are happy to play T20Is in Pakistan but are reluctant to play 2 Tests in Pakistan. I've written to BCB and I've been very strong in my response and asked them for the reason why. ICC have signed off on our security plans. Sri Lanka will complete 2 Test matches safely here; all security provisions are in place. We have asked BCB why they don't want to come. The matter is not finished and it doesn't mean they won't come. They are talking about playing T20Is but for us, playing Test cricket in another country isn't an option now.
If politics were weighing me down, I would have gone back to the UK 5 months ago. For me, it doesn't matter, I'm focused on my work. I've come here because I want to help Pakistan cricket. I won't get everything right, I'll take it on the chin and move forward.
Our NOC policy is a little confusing and we are reviewing it and we will get it right. We need to give players the opportunity to go and play abroad, the experience will benefit Pakistan cricket. Particularly now, when the domestic cricket isn't being played for a period of time.
One of our players was approached at the Qatar T10, he informed the authorities and informed us. That information has been passed on to the ICC. This is what we teach players in our education programmes, as soon as you're approached, you let somebody know. There have been incidents in the past 7-8 months where approaches have been made and players have told the authorities and we have escalated it and handed it over to ICC.
7-8 months ago, England told us that the women's team won't come to Pakistan. We have made a lot of progress since then, but they had already announced that previously.
For the Abu Dhabi T10, the organiser emailed us and asked for permission, but we said our players won't be available. But they went through agents, through players directly so we reluctantly issued conditional NOCs, but we decided to hold camps, etc. and some of the players went to Australia so we called these guys back. With the Qatar T10, there is no domestic cricket now, so the players are free to go. But we need to have clarity about the NOCs, that's something we will work on over the next couple of weeks.
Younis Khan is a legend of the game, I have a good relationship with him. In terms of him not coming for the Karachi Test (refusing invitation), that's his wish. Whatever grievances he has with the PCB are his personal thing. On the other side, we have the Wasim Akrams of the world who work with us but, there are some who are not working with us and they won't be happy about this. It's upsetting and disappointing that there's so many ex-players who have a history with PCB and haven't had good experiences. I need to mend these relationships. Younis Khan is a good friend and he's a good human being and we need such people involved in Pakistan cricket.
Misbah has a 3 year contract but every staff member of the PCB has an appraisal of their work after 1 year. That applies to me as well and it will apply to Misbah too. We have to give him time, but it's about results at the end of the day and he will also be judged on results. We're backing him, he's our Head Coach and we still believe he's the right man for the job.
We will retrain some of the NCA coaches. To create high performance, you need high performance coaches. At the moment, there's some very good coaches and some not very good coaches working in the system.
With Mudassar Nazar leaving and Ali Zia having departed, it's a chance for us to revamp the NCA so that we can start moving in a different direction.
Natural talent continues to come through but it's not enough in professional sport. We are creating a system to support them and allow them to be the best that they can be. It will take time.
We are trying to get players involved with county cricket. We want to send players early to England again. Babar will potentially play for Somerset; Abbas will go to Nottinghamshire. We're trying to get 1 or 2 of the batters, we're speaking to counties. That will help them get practice, the conditions will be different from Australia. We need to plan properly as it will be a difficult series.
We have correspondence with UAE, we have history with them and we've worked with them. They have been good to us for a long period of time. I think everything is fine now and hopefully it won't affect the relationship going forward.
Anti-Corruption issues don't help our credibility, particularly when we're playing against top international teams. They've said in the past, why should we play you? When we don't know if it's a real game or not. We are working hard, we have a good anti-corruption team and we are working closely with the ICC. We will have zero tolerance on this matter moving forward.
PCB CEO Wasim Khan at a press conference today:
MCC is touring Pakistan in February, we have spoken to them over the last 2-3 months. They are coming to Pakistan after 50 years, it will be a tour of Lahore. Sangakkara will captain the team. It's a major coup for us that a high-profile team will come. We will announce their itinerary and squad in January, 2020.
The whole nation is uniting for cricket, you'll have differences and opinion about PCB but we're all united on bringing cricket back to Pakistan.
We've been speaking to South Africa about playing 3 T20Is in Pakistan towards the end of March. The Board have signed off on it, we're waiting for the South Africa players to confirm they are happy. They have had some leadership changes but insha'Allah we'll have good news for that in the next few weeks.
We will have the PSL at 4 venues in Pakistan: Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi. The venues will be ready, and we'll be ready to take on the challenge.
I am very happy with some of the things we achieved in Australia. Australia will come to play in Pakistan in 2022 which was a part of the FTP. They were due to play 2 Test matches and 3 T20Is, we've agreed that they will play 3 Test matches. It's important we play more Test cricket so there will be 3 Tests. We've agreed in principle that the Test series between 2023 and 2031 will all consist of 3 Test matches, and we will play more often. We play them every 3-4 years, but our wish is to play against them more often on a home and away basis.
The Pakistan A team will be called ‘The Shaheens’ moving forward. The other thing I discussed with Cricket Australia is about A tours. We are looking at an arrangement where our team plays in Australia and they come here and play. Before 2022, we're hoping they will send an A team to Pakistan. I'm looking at a 4 year cycle for A tours with Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand. We go to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but we don't play the other big nations as much. We need to get our players ready for conditions that they face across the world and we need to expose our guys to conditions in those countries.
I've spoken to NSW about a scholarship programme to get some of our best boys and girls an opportunity to go training and play club cricket in Sydney, practice and go to the High-Performance Centre. I visited the Brisbane HP Centre and that's something that we should be aiming to emulate, that should be our vision and goal of what a HP Centre should look like.
We planned and implemented a new domestic structure in 7 months. We had visits by the CA, ECB, Cricket Ireland as well. All this happens because of relationships. We're now as Pakistan cricket, are building our credibility around the world. People don't just come and agree to things, you have to have dialogues, discussions and debates to make things happen.
We will increase the number of domestic games we live stream. We will look at improving wickets. We have Andy Atkinson of the ICC coming on January 3rd, he will assess our wickets and run workshops for the groundsmen and help us develop that. He will keep visiting over the next 6-8 months to help us develop our wickets.
We have spent 3.6 billion rupees on our domestic structure over the past 3 years, but we can't sustain that over a long period of time. We're in conversations with sponsors and in the next 3 months, we will be announcing sponsors for the cricket associations which will allow us to spend some of that money elsewhere. We have plans for developing the NCA and these are the things we have to be investing in, the grassroots, schools and club cricket. The money we save from spending in the domestic structure, part of it can go towards the grassroots.
I stepped down as the Chairman of the Cricket Committee. Despite a lot of frantic calls from people, I hadn't resigned as the CEO which some people thought. It was always intended when Mohsin Khan stepped down that I would do it on an interim basis. It's not ideal if your CEO is also your Cricket Committee Chairman. I will, however, remain on the Committee and it remains an advisory committee to the board. We're looking at 2-3 members to be part of this including a new, independent chairman and an ex-cricketer. We want to revamp the committee and have the next meeting before the Bangladesh series and plan a calendar year where we meet 4 times. Wasim Akram will stay on the committee, Urooj Mumtaz will also remain as the Women's representative. We will be looking at other reps. Currently, we have too many people from PCB there so that will change and it will be ready for January.
The Test team is based on the Head Coach's vision. Sarfaraz had significant contributions and we haven't seen the last of him, he's a good man and he's gotten fit and he will perform and knock on the door again. Azhar has just started as captain. It was a tough initiation in Australia, we've seen what's happening to New Zealand now. It's a hard place to tour. I have no doubt that his performances will pick up. To say this is make or break for him is a bit premature.
We can't do anything about India right now, we will keep dialogue options open with BCCI. Ultimately, they need permission from the government, so our focus is on teams we can play but we never lose hope, we hope one day we'll play India again whether it's at a neutral venue or Pakistan but at the moment it's out of our control.
I'm very aware of the politics in Pakistan cricket. I'm here because of Pakistan cricket and I've come here to contribute to Pakistan cricket. We've managed to get things done.
I can't speak too much about investigations at NCA. What was going to happen first was a suspension followed by an investigation but he (Ali Zia) decided to resign. That doesn't mean the investigation won't happen.
Regarding Mudassar Nazar, when I joined PCB, he made it clear he probably wanted to do 1 more year. With what's happened with Ali Zia, I think Mudassar wanted to make his position clear because it takes time to find replacements. He wanted to make sure there was no speculation about his position so he announced it 6 months in advance.
We will have an update about the PSL Executive in the next few days.
Our relationship with the PSL franchise owners is a positive one, we don't agree on everything but that's part and parcel of it. We're pretty much there in terms of the fees, we're still waiting for 1-2 outstanding payments to reveal the revenue shares for the PSL owners but we're nearly there. The process is something we need to learn from, we need to be better and quicker. This year hasn't been acceptable, we've been too slow to provide details around revenue shares etc., they are big investors in the game in Pakistan and we're thankful and respect them. Both sides need to be better.
We haven't had a psychologist with our team recently. It's about pressure, one thing that has always been said about our team is that once the pressure starts, we can't cope. We have talented cricketers but in any modern sport, you need support, you need a psychologist and we're talking about that and we will bring someone in.
We are developing HPCs for the Cricket Associations. They will have psychologists working with players coming through, the A tours, U19s, U16s. The days or not having psychologists, thinking that talent alone is enough, those days are gone.
Our 6 CA head coaches work closely with Nadeem Khan who is a selection coordinator. He is working closely with Misbah as well and now majority of the burden sits with him, he provides information to Misbah.
Wasim Akram won't be Chairman of the Cricket Committee.
We have spoken to Australia already and we are in talks with England, NZ and SA regarding exchange programmes, it's important for us to give young players exposure. I have spoken to Leicestershire and a couple of other counties regarding pre-season training. Our facilities at NCA are good, this will happen slowly slowly. The MCC tour will bring a lot of credibility to Pakistan. After that, we are hopeful that counties and teams from other countries will come. We are taking small steps, you can't do it all at once.
The new structure will take time to have effect, one year won't change things. Our previous structure was there for many years and it failed. We are ranked 8/6 in Tests/ODIs. This has happened over a period of time. We are moving in the right direction now.
There comes a time for people to move on. The PCB has fresh ideas and there will be changes, more changes going forward.
Nothing has been proven against Wasim Akram, he remains a legend of the game in Pakistan as does Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Waqar Younis, etc. These guys are icons, you go to any country and people talk about them and what they have achieved. I think we should continue to respect them.
Azhar Ali has been captain for 2-3 months, is it fair to judge him on that time period? Give him time as you want to give time to the coaches, as I wanted time when I came into this position. You need time to do something.
Misbah's decisions in terms of selection are up to him. Accountability is with one person, give him time and then judge him.
Regarding the T20 performances, it's not good enough. It's not acceptable that we're losing matches. Australia was a tough tour, but we lost both matches by an innings. We're not blind to all of this, we're looking at these things. Let him operate for a year and we'll see where we after that.
We are in talks with departments regarding keeping a competition going between them. We will find a window for it for maybe 2-3 weeks where they can play a department competition, for example. The departments have been positive about supporting and sponsoring cricket. A number of them will be involved moving forward. In 2-3 months, we'll be in a position to announce that.
We are in correspondence with Bangladesh. They are happy to play T20Is in Pakistan but are reluctant to play 2 Tests in Pakistan. I've written to BCB and I've been very strong in my response and asked them for the reason why. ICC have signed off on our security plans. Sri Lanka will complete 2 Test matches safely here; all security provisions are in place. We have asked BCB why they don't want to come. The matter is not finished and it doesn't mean they won't come. They are talking about playing T20Is but for us, playing Test cricket in another country isn't an option now.
If politics were weighing me down, I would have gone back to the UK 5 months ago. For me, it doesn't matter, I'm focused on my work. I've come here because I want to help Pakistan cricket. I won't get everything right, I'll take it on the chin and move forward.
Our NOC policy is a little confusing and we are reviewing it and we will get it right. We need to give players the opportunity to go and play abroad, the experience will benefit Pakistan cricket. Particularly now, when the domestic cricket isn't being played for a period of time.
One of our players was approached at the Qatar T10, he informed the authorities and informed us. That information has been passed on to the ICC. This is what we teach players in our education programmes, as soon as you're approached, you let somebody know. There have been incidents in the past 7-8 months where approaches have been made and players have told the authorities and we have escalated it and handed it over to ICC.
7-8 months ago, England told us that the women's team won't come to Pakistan. We have made a lot of progress since then, but they had already announced that previously.
For the Abu Dhabi T10, the organiser emailed us and asked for permission, but we said our players won't be available. But they went through agents, through players directly so we reluctantly issued conditional NOCs, but we decided to hold camps, etc. and some of the players went to Australia so we called these guys back. With the Qatar T10, there is no domestic cricket now, so the players are free to go. But we need to have clarity about the NOCs, that's something we will work on over the next couple of weeks.
Younis Khan is a legend of the game, I have a good relationship with him. In terms of him not coming for the Karachi Test (refusing invitation), that's his wish. Whatever grievances he has with the PCB are his personal thing. On the other side, we have the Wasim Akrams of the world who work with us but, there are some who are not working with us and they won't be happy about this. It's upsetting and disappointing that there's so many ex-players who have a history with PCB and haven't had good experiences. I need to mend these relationships. Younis Khan is a good friend and he's a good human being and we need such people involved in Pakistan cricket.
Misbah has a 3 year contract but every staff member of the PCB has an appraisal of their work after 1 year. That applies to me as well and it will apply to Misbah too. We have to give him time, but it's about results at the end of the day and he will also be judged on results. We're backing him, he's our Head Coach and we still believe he's the right man for the job.
We will retrain some of the NCA coaches. To create high performance, you need high performance coaches. At the moment, there's some very good coaches and some not very good coaches working in the system.
With Mudassar Nazar leaving and Ali Zia having departed, it's a chance for us to revamp the NCA so that we can start moving in a different direction.
Natural talent continues to come through but it's not enough in professional sport. We are creating a system to support them and allow them to be the best that they can be. It will take time.
We are trying to get players involved with county cricket. We want to send players early to England again. Babar will potentially play for Somerset; Abbas will go to Nottinghamshire. We're trying to get 1 or 2 of the batters, we're speaking to counties. That will help them get practice, the conditions will be different from Australia. We need to plan properly as it will be a difficult series.
We have correspondence with UAE, we have history with them and we've worked with them. They have been good to us for a long period of time. I think everything is fine now and hopefully it won't affect the relationship going forward.
Anti-Corruption issues don't help our credibility, particularly when we're playing against top international teams. They've said in the past, why should we play you? When we don't know if it's a real game or not. We are working hard, we have a good anti-corruption team and we are working closely with the ICC. We will have zero tolerance on this matter moving forward.
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. [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION]. He had done alot in one year and people are ignoring his work ethic and achievements.
