Cricket Committee holds first meeting

Officials suggest increasing teams from eight to 12 for next year’s first-class season

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Cricket Committee, headed by former cricketer Mudassar Nazar, staged its first meeting at the board’s headquarters in Lahore yesterday.

The cricket committee also called upon PCB’s domestic and international cricket department officials to help prepare a better road map for the future.

The domestic structure was approved by the PCB’s Governing Board prior to the Cricket Committee’s formulation, in which it was decided that the number of teams in first-class cricket will be reduced.



According to the approved domestic structure, there will be eight departmental and eight regional teams that would play the first-class season, but some Cricket Committee officials said that this should be rectified by next year.

“We need to understand that by minimising teams this year, some top regional and departmental sides will not be a part of the first-class season,” a cricket committee official told The Express Tribune.

“The departments have been looking after the players and providing them jobs and facilities, so it’s unfair on teams like PQA, SBP and ZTBL not to be a part of the first-class season. If they will not play top-tier cricket, their cricket teams might get disbanded, which would be a big loss for cricket and cricketers.”



The official added that it has been requested for the decision to be revisited for the next year, with 12 departments and as many regions being given a chance to play first-class season.

It was also learnt that there is also a suggestion on the table to have domestic T20 tournament of departments as well, just like their regional counter-parts.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2016.

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