With Imran Khan gone, will departmental cricket make a comeback in Pakistan domestic cricket?

[MenInG]

Big lobby in favour of bringing it back - wonder if this will happen now that the pressure of Imran Khan is gone?

 

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

2 points on this:

1. Does anyone have a viewpoint on how the new structure has started off in terms of cricketing ability, talent recruitment and welfare?
2. With so much going on, not sure the new set up will pay much attention to cricket before elections whenever they happen.

 

[Markhor]

No. The new PCB constitution has no role for departments, who were divesting and disbanding their cricket divisions even pre-IK's reforms.

Covid-19 would've only accelerated this trend.

Najam Sethi (presuming he'll be the next PCB Chair) made it clear in his PP interview that he too supports regional FC cricket.

PakPassion.net: Any areas where you feel you didn't achieve your target during your tenure?

Najam Sethi: Absolutely so and you will be surprised to note that one of the first things that I wanted to do when I was appointed as Chairman PCB was to try and organise regional cricket along the way its organised all over the world which is also what Imran Khan has been saying all along. I recall that in my first meeting at the PCB I said that we need to do what Imran Khan has been talking about as that is the right way to go forward for Pakistan cricket. We had to have quality regional teams and we must have a system which feeds talents to those teams. This would allow for a fiercely competitive and high-quality environment. But one thing which was standing in the way of this progress were the departments and the way the cricket structure was organised in which these entities were a world unto themselves. Many of the cricketers had jobs with the departments and the regions were lazy in a way as they could not raise money to support themselves and were dependent on PCB’s largesse for their survival. This is exactly the kind of crisis that a strong man like Imran Khan can resolve as he believes in it and the departments will not be able to stand up to him.

PakPassion.net: How in your view, can domestic cricket be organised in regional terms?

Najam Sethi: What we need to do is to merge the system in a way that we only have regional cricket and that departments should become sponsors of cricket, rather than cricket playing agencies of their own. When that happens, you will get proper fan basis and the regional sub-nationalisms coming into the equation and you will see the stadiums filling up. Who really wants to see a cricket match where one department is playing another department? Such teams have no fan loyalty, so it doesn’t make sense, but we have a situation where the departmental system is strong with many of Pakistan’s top cricketers having played for the departments and are thus unwilling to speak against their alma maters as such. And the reason the departments came into the picture was because the Board was poor and could not pay their players well. This is why the departments came in and thought that this would be good for their image but in the end, they became bureaucratised and also were not getting any real fan following as well as any significant revenues out of it.

For the removal of departments from Pakistan cricket, a change in constitution is required which isn’t as easy as it sounds, as I found out when I tried to change it. There was a revolt against me and people even went to parliament to stop me from changing the cricket structure which was producing some top stars for the country. What people were forgetting was that those were the days of Test cricket where placid pitches were the norm. But, now life is changing, and cricket is being played at a faster pace and our structure wasn’t geared for that. It was indeed a terrible time for me as I could not even persuade my own Board on this issue as the PCB itself had a representation of four departments and they suddenly saw their existence under threat and put up a huge resistance. I believe that Imran Khan should take on this challenge and revamp the domestic structure.

I'm not a particularly big supporter of IK but the restructuring of domestic cricket is one of his finest achievements, and I really hope Sethi stays true to his word.

 

[Babeikh]

I was worried about this - in fact I expected it would happen immediately, but apparently it is not possible as the PCB constitution does not allow it.

 

[MenInG]

No. The new PCB constitution has no role for departments, who were divesting and disbanding their cricket divisions even pre-IK's reforms.

Covid-19 would've only accelerated this trend.

Najam Sethi (presuming he'll be the next PCB Chair) made it clear in his PP interview that he too supports regional FC cricket.



I'm not a particularly big supporter of IK but the restructuring of domestic cricket is one of his finest achievements, and I really hope Sethi stays true to his word.

Yes but he is a politician too.

 

[hitthestump]

2 points on this:

1. Does anyone have a viewpoint on how the new structure has started off in terms of cricketing ability, talent recruitment and welfare?
2. With so much going on, not sure the new set up will pay much attention to cricket before elections whenever they happen.

It's way too early to say, but the effectiveness of the system isn't what concerns any new regime. It'll be about financial gain and if departments make more money, that's what we'll get.

 

[cricketAXEpert]

Big lobby in favour of bringing it back - wonder if this will happen now that the pressure of Imran Khan is gone?

Hope that never happens.

 

[cricketAXEpert]

I was worried about this - in fact I expected it would happen immediately, but apparently it is not possible as the PCB constitution does not allow it.

It can't happen overnight. The departments obviously don't have the old infra structure anymore. They will have to restart.

 

[oatmeal]

They should talk to the departments and try to provide jobs to cricketers (based on performance and seniority).

But department run teams shouldnt be back, constant chopping and changing hurts cricketers careers and the set up isnt allowed to mature.

 

[Saj]

Expect another overhaul of the domestic system when the new guys come in.

Anything is possible and I'm sure there will be big changes.

 

[Sher Khan]

Expect another overhaul of the domestic system when the new guys come in.

Anything is possible and I'm sure there will be big changes.

Ideally, Ramiz should be given a fair go but yes departments should make a come back. A lot of deserving players are missing out currently.

 

[Zaz]

Ideally, Ramiz should be given a fair go but yes departments should make a come back. A lot of deserving players are missing out currently.

If they are good enough theyd be picked by the fc teams

Pakistan cricket shouldnt be about players earning a salary, the domestics should be a quality feeder system for the national team

 

[MenInG]

Several cricket organisers including former members of the Board of Governors of the Pakistan Cricket Board have demanded of the newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to immediately restore the previous constitution of the PCB and restore departmental, regional, district and club cricket which has been dysfunctional as a result of the implementation of the 2019 constitution.

The calls for reversion are being led by former BoG member Nauman Butt, who had to leave his post during the tenure of previous PCB chairman Ehsan Mani.

Nauman had been against PCB’s move to dissolve the departmental cricket system and introduce a regional system during a meeting of the BoG in Quetta.

A joint-press statement by Nauman alongside other former BoG members Suleman Talpur and Shakil Sheikh, and former Bahawalpur Cricket Association president Tariq Sarwar on Wednesday said that the last three years were the darkest period in Pakistan’s cricketing history as the PCB acted on former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s desire to abolish the departmental system.

Noting that it had led to several cricketers losing their jobs, they said that it was imperative that Shehbaz — as the patron-in-chief of the PCB — takes immediate steps to put Pakistan’s domestic cricket structure back on track as the entire system had been running on ad-hoc basis since the implementation of the new PCB constitution in August 2019.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2022

 

[Titan24]

Departments were already getting defuncted before the new structure. If I am not wrong HBL, UBL and quite a few others had already winded up their teams. It never made sense to me especially in the modern world with ever changing dynamics that any of these corporate houses having time, money and resources to keep on running cricket teams when they can simply sponsor domestic cricket and league cricket (Like HBL did with PSL and many others also came in) achieving possibly more hype and brand building then running team of theirs did.

So saying revive the departmental cricket is not gonna happen simply by waving a wand. Even for govt departments they would have made their budgets in accordance with the understanding that they dont have to fund the teams and dont think they would be willing to start them again just because the system has now gone back to previous structure or would easily be possible as well.

Better idea would be to making these departments which previously had teams to sponsor the current regional teams, if this works then maybe add a team or two more. With the hype PSL have had there would be number of corporate houses who would want to associate themselves with Pakistan cricket so domestic cricket if marketed will should bring in quite a few sponsors (We have already seen glimpses with some teams being heavily sponsored for National T20 Cup).

 

[Shafi]

Leeches are resurfacing after Imran's departure. Hopefully Imran will back soon and salted these leeches.

 

[MenInG]

LAHORE: A former director development at Pakistan Cricket Board’s National Cricket Academy, now revamped as the High Performance Centre, believes that the ill-planned restructuring of domestic cricket has destroyed the system.

During the tenure of Ehsan Mani as PCB chairman, the country’s cricket governing body dissolved the departmental cricket system as well as the 16 regions on instructions of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, shrinking it to just six provincial teams.

But the system could not be fully implemented during the last three years as the club scrutiny to induct them into the new system wasn’t carried out — neither during the time of Mani nor during Ramiz Raja’s current stint as PCB chief.

“This step disenfranchised thousands of clubs, many of whom were functioning prior to the creation of Pakistan,” Aizaz Syed, the former NCA director development, told Dawn on Friday. “Without developing any strategy to fit existing stakeholders into meaningful new activities, the board had to suspend grassroots cricket for years.

“In addition, over 16 regions, 100 districts, hundreds of volunteer office bearers, 3,000 clubs, dozens of departmental teams many of which own stadiums, and patrons’ teams ceased to exist. To make matters worse, no new pathways were created over an extended period for using existing capacity.

“While one of the primary goals of all sporting organisations is to increase system capacity or encourage its expansion, PCB induced large national capacity shrinkage due to poor management.”

Aizaz claimed the previous system had been profitable for the PCB.

“The previous domestic structure was able to generate cricketing activity worth nearly Rs2 billion per year, in addition to approximately Rs1.4 billion rupees that PCB spent on it every year,” he informed.

“More importantly, several thousand-man hours of work done by thousands of volunteers made domestic and grassroots cricket possible

every year. This system also provided employment to thousands of players and support staff. The failure of the new domestic cricket system can be judged by the fact that since the new board took over, most players who have made international debuts for Pakistan through domestic cricket are in their mid-30s.”

Aizaz added that the move to replicate the domestic system in Australia disregarded the country’s conditions.

“Prior to the dissolution of the board in 2018, private organizations, government departments, and passionate patrons were the main stakeholders in PCB. These silent warriors organized domestic cricket all over Pakistan. They developed stadiums, and hundreds of cricket grounds facilitated cricket clubs, and provided thousands of jobs to top players and support staff for decades,” he observed.

“After providing financial stability to PCB and rolling out massive new programmes, the change of command in the PCB brought Ehsan Mani in place in 2018. The new PCB management wanted to change everything that was being done for decades with complete disregard of local conditions, and without a proper plan to plug in the Australian system of cricket into Pakistan. Only the upper tier of the Australian system was put into place through a flawed management plan.”

Aizaz noted that Pakistan needed a new and logical system as quickly as possible in order to re-empower the real stakeholders of cricket from grassroots level.

“In rich countries like UK and Australia from where the system was copied, cricket clubs contract a substantial number of professional players every year, whereas, in a country like Pakistan, which ranks at 173 in per capita income, no cricket club can dream of hiring the services of professional cricketers,” he said.

“In the current Pakistani domestic cricket system, players are now instructed to play for a particular team under a specific financial contract, the terms of which the player cannot negotiate with the now sole employer, namely PCB.

“This mistake, combined with cyclical management errors, led to a rapid breakdown of the domestic cricket structure. Once departments, sponsors, teams, and owners of cricket grounds and stadiums became non-entities, the board lost an invaluable asset that was painstakingly developed over several decades.”

He said the PCB needed more profitable projects like Pakistan Super League, which became a successful brand in a few years because all the matters related to it were dealt on professional lines.

“The PSL was the biggest achievement of the PCB, after former Pakistan captain and PCB President A.H Kardar’s initiative of bringing in the departmental cricket, and provided the cricketers perfect platform to play cricket on professional lines,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2022

 

[MenInG]

LAHORE – Former PCB Governing Board member and Lahore Regional Cricket Association (LRCA) president Khawaja Nadeem Ahmed met with newly-elected Chief Minister Punjab Mian Hamza Shahbaz Sharif to discuss cricketing matters with the CM. Khawaja Nadeem congratulated Hamza Shahbaz Sharif on becoming Chief Minister Punjab during the meeting and said:

“There is a dire need to restore Pakistan Cricket Board’s Constitution of 2014 as it will help in improving Pakistan cricket especially domestic cricket, which is declining fast. The time is high when the opportunities for the cricketers should be increased as they are facing tough times due to some wrong decisions taken by the PCB.”

He added: “The majority of youngsters only play cricket. The number of first-class teams in India and England has not affected their quality as their teams are progressing well at national and international level. Reducing the number of teams is not the solution to the problem instead there is a need to increase the number of teams and improve selection policy as it will help in securing the financial future of young cricketers.

“If the game is made attractive to the youth, it will also help in raising the standard and quality of cricket. With more people playing cricket, standard cricketers will emerge, who will perform at national and international level and not only cement their placed in the national teams but also help Pakistan teams produce better results in big ICC events,” Khawaja Nadeem added.

https://nation.com.pk/2022/04/18/di...itution-of-2014-to-improve-cricket-kh-nadeem/

 

[Babeikh]

Can see the freeloaders who are lobbying for a return to departmental cricket. From what others have said on here and from my own research it would require an overhaul of the PCB constitution to bring departments back so hopefully whoever comes after Ramiz will just see it as too much hassle and won't go there but there is clearly a self interested lobby building. The new domestic structure is the single best thing the PCB has done in recent memory, maybe even in the history of Pakistan cricket - if there is one thing which we should now not change, it is that.