FearlessRoar
T20I Star
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2023
- Runs
- 30,521
He is speaking out on the right issue that desperately needs attention

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Absolutely,More team --> less quality of domestic teams
but too little teams --> Less opportunity for us to showcase talent
A better format would be:
- To have 6 teams in Division one, 6 teams in Division 2 & 6 teams in Division 3
- 2 teams relegated / promoted each season. It would raise the stakes, you would make the First division competitive, and also would have players from smaller regions participate.
Absolutely,
DIV 3 shouldn't have FC status though.
You need promotions/relegation to stop teams stagnating and coaches/staff becoming lazy. Otherwise its jsut a merry go round of players
In the previous system were the other 6 teams not second XI? Don't think they had FC status but could be wrong.Technically it was 12 FC teams in the 6/6 system divided by division. At the time, people complained it was too few teams, we need to give more players a chance. Now its gone to 18 teams and its too many, quality isn't there, it isn't broadcasted or covered etc and honestly, they are legitimate criticism.
One match was broadcasted under the previous system and that helped engage fans and gave players a chance to really get noticed. Nowadays, you just get these stats without any context, without any idea what the pitch is like, how fast or slow bowlers are bowling, what batters techniques look like etc. Even the selectors on the committee, do they even have any idea what any of these players look like and who's a real future talent in this massive pool of mid?
Personally, I am a fan of the two tier division system where a youngster can work through a lower level class of players, prove themselves, get promoted and do it in the first tier before being up for promotion with the national team. Maybe 6/6 (12 teams) is too little and if you want to go 6 tier 1 teams & 10 tier 2 teams or something, that is fine.
We always blame players for not caring about FC or Tests but it's the people in charge and behind the scenes who hold the power to change that but don't care about it themselves to do it.
In the previous system were the other 6 teams not second XI? Don't think they had FC status but could be wrong.
In a country where people don't care about test cricket (especially when your team only plays 4-5 tests a year) so why would they bother with FC cricket.First class is dying. The biggest problem is no one wants to watch. It doesn’t matter if it’s live streamed, no one still will watch.
Domestic needs to be profitable and more widely watched. And if there’s little pressure due to lack of viewership and money, it will be hard maintaining a high standard.
I don’t really know what to do to solve this though as I don’t think there is anything that can be done to get people to watch first class cricket. People just don’t care anymore.
But the players in those 6 teams played very few FC matches then. And you need to play more than 5-6 FC matches a year. It was structured horribly as most of First XI and Second XI matches took place in parallel.Technically it was 12 FC teams in the 6/6 system divided by division. At the time, people complained it was too few teams, we need to give more players a chance. Now its gone to 18 teams and its too many, quality isn't there, it isn't broadcasted or covered etc and honestly, they are legitimate criticism.
One match was broadcasted under the previous system and that helped engage fans and gave players a chance to really get noticed. Nowadays, you just get these stats without any context, without any idea what the pitch is like, how fast or slow bowlers are bowling, what batters techniques look like etc. Even the selectors on the committee, do they even have any idea what any of these players look like and who's a real future talent in this massive pool of mid?
Personally, I am a fan of the two tier division system where a youngster can work through a lower level class of players, prove themselves, get promoted and do it in the first tier before being up for promotion with the national team. Maybe 6/6 (12 teams) is too little and if you want to go 6 tier 1 teams & 10 tier 2 teams or something, that is fine.
We always blame players for not caring about FC or Tests but it's the people in charge and behind the scenes who hold the power to change that but don't care about it themselves to do it.
But the players in those 6 teams played very few FC matches then. And you need to play more than 5-6 FC matches a year. It was structured horribly as most of First XI and Second XI matches took place in parallel.
Some really good points made. This is where pros and ex Pros could be used to as advisory groups. @emranabbas look at his points on the quality of domestic cricket.
He is sharing his experiences and observations on Pakistan's Domestic Cricket Structure given his 17-18 year playing career
He has the following revelations
- He has seen around 10 changes to the domestic cricket structure in his career. He is critical of the fact that the changes in the domestic structure are always linked and reactive to the performance of the international team for e.g. if the pakistani batting flops for 5-6 series in a row, the PCB prepares green tops and directs the use of the dukes ball which aids seam, swing under the assumption that this will help produce technically correct players in domestic cricket automatically
- The PCB needs to find the right balance b/w quantity and quality. Playing 24 plus teams dilutes the quality of domestic cricket because regions and teams which barely have 1-2 decent players are now being forced to field teams of 15 players and out of no where the amount of double centuries have gone up in domestic cricket which most likely came against very low quality bowling attacks
- He is also critical of the PCB for holding these domestic games in stadiums, pitches where the public is completely unaware of and unlikely to come. The PCB needs to hold these domestic games at the likes of National Bank National Stadium, Bank of Punjab Qadhafi Stadium, Rawalpindi, Multan Stadium e.t.c.
- Players themselves don't know which domestic team they will play for and represent season to season. It takes a team around 2-3 seasons for its players to gell together, to understand the teams and their own strengths, weaknesses, to fight for the team. When players end up playing for a different team every season, you will only breed chaos and insecurity where players only look out for themselves as they know they only have a few games to prove themselves otherwise they will be kicked out
- He is highly critical of the PCB decision to bring the dukes ball and preparing green tops in domestic cricket. This has resulted in dibbly dobbly medium pacers who bowl at 110-120 km/hr and these medium pacers end up topping the domestic bowling charts in comparison to genuine quick bowlers, matches were ending on average in 1.5-2 days and out of 8 games he witnessed not a single game barely went into the third day. He himself mentioned an opening batsman who opened the bowling for his side with medium pace and he ended up running through the opposition team with the new ball. There is no way the PCB will ever ask these medium pacers to play for Pakistan using the Kookaburra ball because they will not have international standard speed and quality. Batsmen when facing the dukes ball on a green top end up developing the mentality to slash at every delivery outside the offstump because they are so desperate to score runs that they don't mind edges over slips or third man going for boundaries. The PCB is badly mistaken if they think this is how they will produce technically correct batters who can occupy the crease and bat, score for long periods of time.
The PCB when they see that Pakistan is struggling to produce genuine quick bowlers or batters who can bat for long time periods, they react by ordering the Kookaburra ball to be used in domestic cricket on flat wickets and the end result is you have bowlers struggling to take wickets and average batters topping the batting charts.
If the PCB wants to use the Dukes ball in domestic cricket then they need to prepare flat wickets because the Dukes ball still provides reasonable assistance to the bowlers when the ball gets older but batsmen also have a chance to score runs. Similarly if the PCB wants to use the Kookaburra ball in domestic cricket then they have to prepare pitches with assistance for the bowlers
- However he feels like England uses the Dukes Ball in England, Australia and South Africa use the Kookaburra ball in their conditions, India uses the SCG ball in India, Similarly the PCB needs to use the Grey's ball in Pakistan as that is the best ball for Pakistani conditions. The greys ball swings, seams in Pakistan, when the ball gets softer, it aids spin, reverse swing and batsmen are able to play shots as well. Spinners will be able to bowl long spells.
- The PCB and the broadcasters need to stream the domestic games live on tv or their Youtube channels. This drives home the message to the players that there is no value of domestic cricket and the domestic players struggle to handle the pressure of international cricket when they have to play live in front of the world and in jam packed stadiums.
- He is critical of the PCB's selection restrictions in domestic cricket for lacking flexibility i.e. PCB has imposed age restrictions where domestic teams cannot select players above 35 years of age, a team cannot have 3 wicket keepers, if the other two wicket keepers are very good batters and better batsmen then some of the other batsmen, are you going to prevent them from playing for their teams as a regular batsman? Similarly, the PCB has a rule that you have to play atleast 3 pacers in every match even if the wicket is dry, soft and aiding spin. Similarly, the PCB has a rule that an opener can only be replaced by another opener, not a middle order batsman, if the same openers keep failing for ten matches in a row, the team still has to stick to the same openers even if the middle order batsmen sitting on the bench are equally talented players. All the selections, decisions in the domestic team's playing elevens happen as per the PCB rules and directives, the coaches have no say to select their teams based on the conditions. The coaches don't revolt or say anything against the PCB because they want to save their jobs
- Such is the low quality nature of Pakistan's domestic cricket that if the likes of Babar, Rizwan, Shaheen play domestic games, they will spend the entire day taking selfies from their star struck fellow players
- He guarantees that if the PCB just gets these basic things right and actually improves the quality of domestic cricket, the quality of the players, selections, balls, pitches, the results will automatically reflect on the performances of the national team
One of the regret I had , I could not make it to first class cricket although played lots of top level club cricket in Lahore and played for university , narrowly missed chance to play grade-2 Patron's trophy ( non-FC), due to studies and because there were so many players available who were better than me , but now after the recent reversal of QAE Trophy, every street level player is playing FC cricket . There is already lack of talent and interest among the youngsters and now that limited talent has been diluted by increasing the number of teams . Last model of 6 teams was good and players financial care could have been achieved by sponsorships but it was abolished for the sake of it. NO wonder the gap between our domestic level and international level is widening with rapid pace.He is speaking out on the right issue that desperately needs attention
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Does not matter what kind of player he was but he is right what he is saying.Sohaib Maqsood himself was a mediocre player, he is crying foul now because he will probably not be selected for PSL going forward.
Absolutely pathetic batsmen, not one impactful international performance...
Not sure why anyone would want to learn form his experiences...
Sohaib Maqsood himself was a mediocre player, he is crying foul now because he will probably not be selected for PSL going forward.
Absolutely pathetic batsmen, not one impactful international performance...
Not sure why anyone would want to learn form his experiences...
1. I agree that PCB is a pathetic organization run in the worst way possible, a case study in how not to run any organizationWhat a strange response to legitimate points & criticisms by Maqsood. Do only top players get the credibility to criticize PCB and point out legitimate issues?
PCB and its domestic system are a complete joke and he makes good points. It's crazy how much criticism PCB escapes despite being such an incompetent board run by bunch of a fools & clowns.
Players always take the blame for the poor performances but no one asks why isn't there more high end talent being developed by PCB? And the ones who miraculously do come through are just here for a quick time, not a long time. Why is this? Why is it a player will get one injury and their entire career will hanging on by a thread?
Nobody constantly changes the domestic system on a whim like PCB does and the result over the past few decades speak for themselves.
Sorry but it does, we all can criticize PCB and we all should criticize PCB for being a very poor organization, but there is no need to give any attention to what mediocre players like Sohaib Maqsood say. This is all attention seeking in my opinion.Does not matter what kind of player he was but he is right what he is saying.
1. I agree that PCB is a pathetic organization run in the worst way possible, a case study in how not to run any organization
2. Yes, statements coming from proven and credible players certainly carry a lot more weight.
3. This is Sohaib Maqsood's ploy to seek attention, he could never prove himself and is now employing all these tactics to get someone to pick him
4. No good can come to Pakistan cricket by selecting him or by asking him for advice
5. To put this in simple words, there is no need to give Sohaib Maqsood any coverage on any forum. He's had his chance and could not perform at all.
1. I agree that PCB is a pathetic organization run in the worst way possible, a case study in how not to run any organization
2. Yes, statements coming from proven and credible players certainly carry a lot more weight.
3. This is Sohaib Maqsood's ploy to seek attention, he could never prove himself and is now employing all these tactics to get someone to pick him
4. No good can come to Pakistan cricket by selecting him or by asking him for advice
5. To put this in simple words, there is no need to give Sohaib Maqsood any coverage on any forum. He's had his chance and could not perform at all.
AbsolutelyInstead of attacking the player, please focus on his points and critique what he said right or wrong.
Ridiculous , the guy has played domestic cricket for many years , performed and elevated to a national player with mixed results . What exact credentials you are looking for in a player to speak about the weaknesses in the domestic cricket circuit . Rather than getting personal with Sohaib, you should have expressed your opinion on his comments .Sohaib Maqsood himself was a mediocre player, he is crying foul now because he will probably not be selected for PSL going forward.
Absolutely pathetic batsmen, not one impactful international performance...
Not sure why anyone would want to learn form his experiences...
I disagree, there is no need to pay any heed to what a player like Sohaib Maqsood says, right or wrong...Instead of attacking the player, please focus on his points and critique what he said right or wrong.
That is an absurd POV, he played in a broken system and has no clue what it takes to succeed at the international level..Ridiculous , the guy has played domestic cricket for many years , performed and elevated to a national player with mixed results . What exact credentials you are looking for in a player to speak about the weaknesses in the domestic cricket circuit . Rather than getting personal with Sohaib, you should have expressed your opinion on his comments .
Absolutely not.. why listen to tried and tested failures like Sohaib Maqsood?Absolutely
He is a tried and tested failure... does not know what it takes to succeed at the international level.. there is no need to pay any attention to him...Credible players? It's not like Sohaib is some sort of cheater and fraudster. Just because he didn't end up hitting his potential as a player doesn't mean his opinions are meaningless and his experience is worthless.
This type of thinking seems so embedded in Pakistani culture where an average or below average cricketers thoughts & opinions are completely disregarded on basis of his playing skill meanwhile, top players like Waqar have been with PCB non-stop and probably been a coach for Pakistan like half a dozen times already.
Furthermore, its players like Sohaib whom have spent most of their life playing domestic than international to know & understand the inner workings of domestic, the constant changes and what he's seen work and not work. Even if this is some sort of ploy to seek attention and honestly, on his end it makes sense. His domestic career is effectively over with PCB disregarding players over age 35 so him starting up a YT channel to make some money makes sense. Regardless, he has brought up very & critical points that I doubt even the chairman knows, cares or is even aware of the systematical issues.
I will have a go at any player who was a disaster in his playing days and is now coming out to teach us right from wrong...Instead of attacking the player, please focus on his points and critique what he said right or wrong.
Typical desi mentality.That is an absurd POV, he played in a broken system and has no clue what it takes to succeed at the international level..
Why would you listen to him?
Typical desi mentality.