Was the 2020-21 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy the best in Pakistan cricket history?

[Markhor]

After a long time, finally Pakistan cricket had a FC season fans have been crying out for. The six teams were fairly evenly matched hence intense cricket throughout thus even in Round 10, you had three teams vying for the second finalist spot. Other positives include:

A logical and competitive format based on regional lines not a hotchpotch of overpowered departments and subpar regions.

Balanced pitches where batsmen and bowlers have a chance to demonstrate their capabilities.

Teams blooding youngsters who were given a fair chance. This season has already seen new names emerge like Shahnawaz Dhani and Mubashir Khan while others lost in the system like Kamran Ghulam were finally been given a platform to showcase their talent.

Coaches being held accountable with several dismissed after a thorough evaluation of their 2019/20 performances.

A dramatic final with one of the ATG performances from a Pakistani player.

Unprecedented fan engagement with quality online streaming of one match per round.

All delivered despite COVID-19 and the competition staged in a bio-bubble in Karachi. Thank you PCB for this experience.

 

[lahoriyah1234]

This is probably the best thing happened under ehsan mani. Ab sirf First class cricket ko bhi open kardo then u will find talent from both side and Domestic is where they can perform and get selected

 

[Markhor]

Meanwhile just three years ago, this was what amounted to domestic "cricket" in Pakistan under the watchful eyes of Shahryar Khan and the visionary Najam "I created PSL" Sethi:



There were seven internationally capped players in that "match". This was what the mafia reduced our cricket to. Disgusting.

 

[ElRaja]

positives: good system to promote and test youngsters, competitive teams, good media coverage, fairish pitches.

negatives: lack of test quality players due to covid, lack of openers with a fat sharjeel khan dominating, very very shallow reserve of young pace bowlers.

it was well organised and covered.

need to stick with the system, and once covid has passed and test players are improve significantly.

 

[Mamoon]

These fireworks over the so-called success of the revamped QeA trophy should be suspended until we see its impact, if any, on the performance of the national team and the quality of the young players in the pipeline.

So far, the signs are not promising. We appointed a director to director to director to director to director to director to director to high performance international player development bla bla bla 8 months ago and we have seen zilch high performance and player development among the young players.

These Shaheens look as ordinary as the A teams before them.

If we are still ranked 6th and 7th in 5 years time, which will probably the case, what is the point of celebrating the success of QeA?

If you want to enjoy the tournament independently without focusing on its influence on the performance of the national team, then that is fair enough.

 

[Bewal Express]

The standard was decent and the main reason was because coaches and captains are accountable and because of that the ******** elements have to started to disappear. For example Basit played the likes of Shezar and finished last. The areas to improve include the standard of spin bowling, the majority were barely 1st class, the playing of spin was rudimentary with too many poor spinners taking wickets without spinning the ball, the poor standard of fielding and the lack of genuine fast bowlers. Umpiring was decent and the competition was def competitive with few freebies

 

[aloo paratha]

No. We need to go back to 20 teams where nobody follows the tournament or even knows it's going on. Need to back to the system where only a few dedicated fans looked through scoreboards. The system where the average team scores are 150 and Hammad Azam averages 18. Who can forget all the classic WAPDA vs KRL matches?

 

[Bewal Express]

These fireworks over the so-called success of the revamped QeA trophy should be suspended until we see its impact, if any, on the performance of the national team and the quality of the young players in the pipeline.

So far, the signs are not promising. We appointed a director to director to director to director to director to director to director to high performance international player development bla bla bla 8 months ago and we have seen zilch high performance and player development among the young players.

These Shaheens look as ordinary as the A teams before them.

If we are still ranked 6th and 7th in 5 years time, which will probably the case, what is the point of celebrating the success of QeA?

If you want to enjoy the tournament independently without focusing on its influence on the performance of the national team, then that is fair enough.

Its easy to see what you are not for but lets have some ideas on how to improve. As usual no ideas or answers just gripes.

 

[Khan12]

Its easy to see what you are not for but lets have some ideas on how to improve. As usual no ideas or answers just gripes.

Just give the job to his master sethi.

 

[Titan24]

QAE 20-21 was well covered, organized and pitches were pretty balanced. It definitely produced some quality cricket and more importantly it looked like the whole domestic structure had clear purpose unlike previous structure with lack of interest even from the departments themselves, politics and same old players kept on playing in countless teams without much transitional process. It was also manifested by graduation of players to the 2nd XI and first Xis from junior level and them getting proper opportunities.

 

[Bewal Express]

QAE 20-21 was well covered, organized and pitches were pretty balanced. It definitely produced some quality cricket and more importantly it looked like the whole domestic structure had clear purpose unlike previous structure with lack of interest even from the departments themselves, politics and same old players kept on playing in countless teams without much transitional process. It was also manifested by graduation of players to the 2nd XI and first Xis from junior level and them getting proper opportunities.

It was a real step forward from the dross of the last 2 decades. And the other thing to remember is that the top 35 players missed the matches, add those to the mix and you begin to create the competition we so need.

 

[Bewal Express]

Just give the job to his master sethi.

If Sethi had done this, we would be hearing non stop about the corrupt are competent. At the turn of the 20th century Lord Salisbury said about Balfour that he had an open mouth on every subject, well [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] is that guy on this forum. No ideas or solutions just trolling.

 

[Hasan123]

Something positive. It will take a few years to see if these changes to the QEA will improve the national team.

 

[mazkhan]

Improvents for me don't hold the tournament in one city use pitches across the country

Also surfaces need to be produced that have a lot of pace and bounce, and a bit of grass left on at the start ,
We seriously need to look at the concept of drop in pitches , pitches grown in climate controlled greenhouses to protect them from local climate conditions and dont need weeks to bed them in and prepare them they can be dropped in and changed constantly that way the pitch will play true to type instead of deteriorating over time due to local climate and the clay bulli accumulating organic matter sand etc so the bounce becomes lower and pitches slower.

 

[Bigboii]

These fireworks over the so-called success of the revamped QeA trophy should be suspended until we see its impact, if any, on the performance of the national team and the quality of the young players in the pipeline.

So far, the signs are not promising. We appointed a director to director to director to director to director to director to director to high performance international player development bla bla bla 8 months ago and we have seen zilch high performance and player development among the young players.

These Shaheens look as ordinary as the A teams before them.

If we are still ranked 6th and 7th in 5 years time, which will probably the case, what is the point of celebrating the success of QeA?

If you want to enjoy the tournament independently without focusing on its influence on the performance of the national team, then that is fair enough.

This

I don't know if this tournament is good for PCT or not

But as a cricket fan this is the first time I actually followed the first class season because of regional loyalty

This is how I am judging the tournament and by that standard I would call it a success

But as far as PCT is concerned I think jury is still out and we need atleast 3-4 more seasons to truly know if this new system is a success

 

[moghul]

This is definitely step in the right direction .

Now I follow each teams score with interest and if I am free and some game is being shown live, I will watch it , but I would not waste my time to following or watching a match between , Sui Northern Gas and Khan research labs.

 

[JibranAnsari]

It lacked variety of pitches though , under current conditions though very good effort . I go every year in jinnah stadium sialkot to watch games , missed it badly this year.

 

[Bewal Express]

It lacked variety of pitches though , under current conditions though very good effort . I go every year in jinnah stadium sialkot to watch games , missed it badly this year.

Post pandemic, they need to play matches in Punjab, KP and Balochistan until early Nov and then move to Karachi from Mid Nov until the final. Too much time is lost in Punjab and KP in the winter

 

[JibranAnsari]

Post pandemic, they need to play matches in Punjab, KP and Balochistan until early Nov and then move to Karachi from Mid Nov until the final. Too much time is lost in Punjab and KP in the winter

Psl is occupying feb and march. Otherwise feb , march and half if april is good time for FC cricket.

 

[Suleiman]

Give it some time guys. Yeah there’s a hell of a lot of things wrong with Pak cricket and reformatting our domestic competitions is the one solution we all wanted. You know it’s going to take a couple years for it to come to fruition. Give it time, if it sucks, call it out when the time comes.

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

I have followed the entire tournament and I can safely say that this is without a doubt the best QEA trophy that I have seen in my life.

A good domestic tournament or system does not necessarily automatically ensure success at the international level. If this creates pathways and filters out the elite players from the rest, it's doing its job.

The next logical step should be to get some foreign coaches involved in this tournament instead of only relying on local coaches. During a Qasim Akram interview of the final, Razzaq in the background was conducting a fielding drill, and safe to say it was so shambolic, it became easy to understand why we suffer in that department.

We now also know about the players who are playing the domestic circuit.

Take the case of Sadaf Hussain who was an enigma before, a sub 20 average and never given a chance, now we all know what he is capable of. Tabish too is now not an unknown as anyone who has followed the tournament is aware of his strengths and weaknesses.

It also shows that we continue to bet on the wrong horses for one or the other reason. Asad Shafiq was dropped from the New Zealand squad and in the domestic tournament, it became obvious that he shouldn't have been carried for the 70 odd tests that he was carried in. Players like Kamran Ghulam, Agha Salman, Usman Salahuddin, Saud Shakil, Adil Amin, and even Hammad Azam outscored him and that's taking the other test batters already out of the equation. Even Muhammad Nawaz who played fewer matches than Asad was only four short of the final runs tally and that's saying something.

Our fast bowling will continue to have issues as Abbas the little that he played continued to dominate our domestic batters. With Hasan being an injury risk, and the young ones like Sameen and Arshad not performing, this is an area of concern and it will remain so until we unearth a gem out of nowhere.

It's also important that this gets bigger and better in 2021 otherwise any gain made would be lost. We should also schedule it better and give fast bowlers time to rest so that they are able to perform. The gaps between matches were short and these are ten rounds of matches and not just a three-match series.

 

[saeed5646]

Throughly enjoyed this year tournament.without 35 main player quality of cricket was still decent .Fielding was terrible pcb should definitely hire fielding coach .Initially pitches were better but we need variety of pitches which will be essential for players development

 

[shah_1]

Better young fast bowlers and spinners needed, not enough U21 batsmen playing the tournament.

 

[shamaan]

they must have a fielding coach for each team next year .

 

[Kaddy]

they must have a fielding coach for each team next year .

Yea that should be must.

Plus all the the teams should have video & data analysts (if they don't have already)

 

[Thunderbolt14]

Actually, they appointed fielding coaches for each region 3-4 weeks ago for the first time (the U19 coaches became fielding coaches once u19 season finished).

This does two things, it gives each region a specialist fielding coach and it also provides training to these coaches which will then trickle down to their future postings as coaches in U19 and domestic cricket.