Cricket: Depts, regions separated on domestic level

PCB reverts to its old first-class structure for upcoming season.

KARACHI: After a failure to improve the state of first-class cricket in the country, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to revert to an older format for the upcoming domestic season.

Board officials have now decided to reintroduce the Patrons Trophy – a tournament played by departmental sides – while keeping the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy open to regions only, bringing about a change from last season, when a region and a departmental side was promoted and relegated.

“The departments will play in a separate group under the umbrella of the Patron’s Trophy while the regional teams will take part in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy,” a PCB official told The Express Tribune. “But the structure of these events has not been decided — maybe they’ll be played by dividing teams in two groups or on a single-league basis.”

Meanwhile, it has also been learnt that the PCB has already dispatched letters to regional associations, stating that departmental players will turn up of for them as well.

“Every region will need to accommodate four to five departmental players in their squad out of which a minimum of four will become a part of the playing-eleven. This move is to nurture top quality players as in the past several under-rated players got the chance to become first-class cricketers.”

Regions and departments remain in dark

On the other hand, regional cricket chiefs have complained that they have no clue about the structure of domestic cricket and the inclusion of new regions and, therefore, cannot reply to PCB’s letter.

They said that they were okay on including departmental players but could not fully agree with a ‘vague’ letter that did not clarify anything about the new structure.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2012.