PCB unveils revamped domestic season schedule
The
(PCB) on Saturday unveiled a fully redesigned national cricket structure for 2019-20
but said the new system would produce quality cricketers who will be
consistent. The PAC also announced that it would decentralize the powers it
currently holds to the benefit of cricket associations.
However,
limiting first-class competition to only six provincial teams and eliminating
the previous 16-team event, several contentious decisions were made. The centre
of Punjab, which has been the hub of Punjab, comprises three major regions -
Lahore, Sialkot and Faisalabad - but collectively they will only form a
first-class team. According to the latest census, these three regions have
between 50 and 60 million inhabitants.
In
contrast, the South Punjab team, which has nearly half of Central's population,
will also have a team from the Multan and Bahawalpur regions that do not boast
of having won major titles in the past. It was learned that it was originally
proposed to include Faisalabad in the southern province to maintain balance.
In
addition, Lahore, the country's second-largest city after Karachi, can form
three teams for the Intercity Cricket Association Championship, separating it
from the top six teams. Under the existing system, Lahore has three zones and
each must line up two teams. Each area of Lahore has 40 to 50 registered clubs,
while the total number of clubs in three zones is 132.
Surprisingly,
the PAC has chosen to consider an association of cities with at least 12 clubs.
But that did not set the maximum number of clubs. For this reason, small towns
with only 12 clubs are considered equal to cities with 40 or more clubs.
The national structure was announced by PCB CEO Wasim Khan at a press conference at
Gaddafi Stadium after PCB President Ehsan Mani informed the meeting of the
benefits of the new structure. Ehsan said cricket should be everyone's priority.
But he was disappointed that a lobby had asked the Lahore High Court to stand
up to the new version of the CCP constitution.
"The
lobby movement even threatened to set up a national system this year, but they
went to play with the game for their own benefit," he said. "The new
system is being put in place to produce quality cricket and, for that reason, a
strict decision has been taken. This new system will bring quality to cricket
in Pakistan. "
However,
when it was pointed out that the formation of Central Punjab had been
unjustified, no satisfactory response was provided by the PAC panel, which included
the controversial director of domestic cricket Haroon Rasheed, apart from Ehsan
and Wasim.
Ehsan
said the PAC had unnecessarily centralized cricket and wanted to decentralize
by empowering cricket associations to operate independently. In this regard, he
said that he would also like to cede the country's stadiums to the PCBs in the
major cricket associations. According to Ehsan, after decentralizing powers to
the benefit of associations, the PAC would be able to pay more attention to
improving cricket's infrastructure.
Under
the new system, interclub cricket in each city will form a team to participate
in the inter-city championship. The top players in the second tier will train
the respective provincial teams to compete in first-class events in the three
formats in which The Pakistani teams will be selected. However, throughout the
briefing, no words were said about the format of women's cricket.
In
one question in this regard, Haroon stated that a decision had also been made
on this matter. According to the formation of the new provincial cricket
associations, Sindh includes Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana. The weakest region
in terms of cricket activities, Balochistan includes Dera Murad Jamali and
Quetta.
The
South Punjab Cricket Association includes Multan and Bahawalpur, while the
Central Punjab Cricket Association consists of Faisalabad, Sialkot and Lahore. The
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cricket Association includes Peshawar, FATA and Abbottabad
and, similarly, the Northern Cricket Association includes Islamabad, Rawalpindi
and Azad Jammu Kashmir.
And
these six provincial organizations will have the affiliation of 90 cities. Regarding
player earnings, it was decided that 32 centralized contract players would be
awarded annual national contracts in each cricket association and would appear
in first-class, non-first-class tournaments, List 'A' and T20, during the same
period. one season.
Cricket
associations will also be able to select players from outside the 32-man group
under contract with pay per game. Each player under the national contract will
receive 50,000 rupees per month and it is expected that a high-performing the player will earn between 2 and 2.5 million rupees per season in terms of
allowances, match fees and prizes (details to be announced in due course).
Each
cricket association will have a player support staff that will include head
coaches, batting coaches, bowling coaches, field coaches, coaches,
physiotherapists and video analysts for first-class, second XI, under-19s,
under-16s and under-16s. -13 high-performance teams and programs.
There
will also be three selectors working with a cricket association each. Initially,
the PAC would fund all the activities of cricket associations and, over time,
sponsors would be hired to enable them to manage their affairs independently.
Event dates:
Pakistan's
2019-20 cricket season will begin on September 14 with the first round of the
Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the country's first-class tournament. A total of 31
matches - including the final - will be played, with each team playing 10
matches, both at home and away, in the double round.
With
the start of the World Test Championship, red-ball cricket remains one of the
priorities. The context behind the new schedule will give players the
opportunity to claim and equip to cope with the pressures of the Test
Championship.
Event dates
Quaid-e-Azam
Trophy (four-day first-class matches with a five-day final):
First
phase: September 14 to October 8; second phase: from 28 October to 13 December.
National
Under-19 Tournament (three days and one day): October 1 to November 12.
Quaid-e-Azam
Trophy (2nd 11th, three-day matches with a four-day final):
First
phase - September 14 to October 10; the second phase - October 28 to November 29.
Twenty20
National Cup (the first and second XI to run simultaneously):
13-24
October: the first XIs will take part in Faisalabad and the second XI in
Karachi.
Pakistan
Cup (one day) (the first and second XI to run simultaneously):
March
29 to April 24, 2020.
