PCB Chairman Wanting to Include One Or Two Overseas Players In Their First-Class Arena
Updated - 23 Jul 2020, 05:34 PM
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani is likely to introduce a significant reform in their first-class circuit or first-class matches. It is to improve the quality of domestic cricket in Pakistan moving forward. The PCB Chairman wants to include one or two overseas players in their four-day cricket format.
Australia and England are two such countries, which do include foreign players in their county cricket matches. The insertion of overseas athletes not only include the quality of their cricket but also improve the players’ own game. A host of cricketers including Marnus Labuschagne, Cheteshwar Pujara, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, and Ravichandran Ashwin, have benefitted from partaking in it.
In a podcast with Peter Oborne and Richard Heller, Ehsan Mani declared that the domestic players would get to learn plenty from international cricketers. The apex body of cricket in Pakistan wants to take their first-class circuit to a whole new level, making it competitive enough that the overseas players wish to be a part of it.
“One of the things we are going to do with our first-class cricket is to encourage one or two overseas players to come and play. It is great for our players to be playing with the international players and that’s not going to happen overnight. We are working to take our first-class cricket to a complete different level and have it so competitive and so attractive for overseas players that they wish and keen to be part of it,” Mani stated.
The system was totally whopped: PCB Chairman
The PCB chairman further said that the players who were playing for first-class cricket went and played Grade-II cricket for the regions. Hence, they were blocking the gateway for youngsters, who arrived through Grade-II cricket into the first-class circuit.
“I realised what happening was that the players, who played for the departments in first-class cricket, went and played Grade-II cricket for the regions. So, they were blocking the pathway for youngsters, who come through Grade-II cricket into the first-class game,” he conceded.
When checked the statistics, the PCB’s boss revealed that their performances were lower than that of Zimbabwe’s. Hence, they concluded that they needed to have the quality and give equal opportunities to youngsters.
“The system was totally whopped. When I looked at the averages and first innings scores of our teams in the first-class matches, the first innings scores was one of the lowest in the world, lower than Zimbabwe. So, I knew something was not right. I concluded that we needed to have quality and quantity without cutting back on the opportunities for the youngsters to play cricket and working their way up if they are good enough,” Ehsan Mani added further.
Also Read: How Sourav Ganguly Beat Anil Kumble, Ajay Jadeja To Become India Captain
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Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)
