LAHORE:
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has hinted at a strong but silent ‘reservation’ in adopting most of the recommendations issued by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Pakistan Task Team (PTT). It is widely understood that most of the recommendations are ambiguous and ‘required clarity’ as majority of them appear to be ‘uncertain’ in reforming the sport in the country.
While issuing the 63 recommendations, the task force team insisted that it had considered the functionality and processes of the cricketing circuit in the country holistically, but interestingly neither the committee nor any member of the task force had toured Pakistan to understand the existing system in place before recommending the proposed changes.
The task team – headed by England’s Giles Clarke – was formed in 2009 to ensure Pakistan retained and developed international cricket after the deadly attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March — an event that effectively ended all major visits to the country, and prevented Pakistan from co-hosting this year’s World Cup.
But the task team appointed for the country failed to come up with a concrete and effective recommendation plan to revive international cricket in Pakistan. Instead the proposed changes categorically focused on PCB’s internal functioning.
‘Recommendatory and not obligatory’
“We are observing each and every recommendation to microscopic detail and we will write a detailed response,” PCB Chief Operating Officer (COO) Subhan Ahmed told reporters at the PCB headquarters.
“These are recommendations and not obligatory directives. They are not meant to be mandatory. These recommendations are just an observation by the task team. It is assumed that by adopting them, the system will improve but it’s completely up to the board to comprehend what actually is feasible to adopt and what is not.”
When the task team was first approved in June 2009, its main purpose was to ensure the resumption of international cricket at home and minimise the losses incurred due to it.
The PTT’s terms of reference reads: “The fulfilment of all current and future arrangements of the PCB’s senior national team to play international cricket, whether at home (subject to the recommendations of the ICC’s Security Task Force), away and/or on neutral venues, including but not limited to those arrangements, requires the PCB to fulfil its obligations under the current Future Tours Programme, or any extended version.”
Recommendations overstep boundaries
However, The Express Tribune understands that the PTT went overboard while issuing some of its recommendations as there were a few which were merely redundant and others which overstepped boundaries of control.
“Making recommendations or suggestions regarding the quality of cricket balls we use in our domestic circuit or during our selection process are issues that should not be of concern to the task force. These are purely internal matters of the PCB,” an official told The Express Tribune.
“We wish the PTT had toured Pakistan to understand the system personally but surprisingly they met about eight times but every time outside the country. So what’s the point?”
Other recommendations
It also took the board officials by surprise, when the task team recommended reducing the centrally-contracted players from 45 to 35. Given the cricketing population of the country – which is assumed to be the second largest in the world – the recommendation irked many board officials as illogical.
The report also urged the board to review the value of having regional and departmental teams together in the domestic set-up.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2011.
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