‘Stop cricketers from playing abroad’

Former players want focus on domestic events, urge PCB to intervene.

KARACHI:

With the Pentangular Cup final missing as many as eight key players, former players have questioned the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) policy of allowing them to miss the domestic season in pursuit of lucrative ventures.

Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shehzad did not feature for Punjab, while Mohammad Sami, Faisal Iqbal, Shahzaib Hasan and Fawad Alam were missing from Sindh’s line-up after signing up for the Bangladesh Premier League. Punjab thrashed Sindh by 511 runs to register their maiden Pentangular Cup triumph but with the final deprived of big stars, former players questioned the move of the cricketers to skip one of the most important matches of the domestic calender.

‘PCB should intervene’

Former opener Shoaib Mohammad called for the intervention of the PCB, saying that it should not allow players to feature in foreign leagues while a domestic tournament was underway.

“The board needs to take a stance,” Shoaib told The Express Tribune. “No one will take domestic tournaments seriously if this practice is allowed to carry on indefinitely. There should be very strict rules for everybody.

“Holding the players back will prove beneficial in the long run as Pakistan’s domestic cricket will become stronger and more competitive.”

Shoaib also said that strict guidelines should be there for every player including star performers otherwise ‘the board will be setting a very bad example for the younger players’ who will then not give enough importance to domestic events, which is undesirable.

PCB degrading domestic tournaments, says Jalal

Former Pakistan fast-bowler Jalaluddin echoed the same sentiment.

“The board’s policy in allowing players to play abroad means that the PCB is degrading domestic tournaments itself. Our players go and play in foreign leagues but can a foreigner play in our domestic league when their domestic season is underway?

“This only happens in Pakistan with our players, while there is a different concept in the rest of the world.”

Latif has different opinion

Former Pakistan captain Rahsif Latif, however, was of a different opinion and believed cricket was the players’ sole bread-earner and they have the right to make money since playing in domestic tournaments did not pay as well as participating in foreign leagues.

“Cricket is a profession and thus the players should be allowed to play in lucrative leagues,” said Latif. “There’s no comparison in what we pay and what players get in foreign tournaments. The only way to stop players is to raise the match fee to Rs100,000.”

He stressed that associations should not be dependent on the PCB and must generate their own income in order to fulfil the requirements of their city, adding that even a groundsman’s salary is paid by the board which is not fair.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2012.