How to save Pakistan Cricket - Practical Solutions & Suggestions

raz30

MPA (400+ posts)
Well guys, there's been so much talk and blame game going on after the defeats in Asia Cup and World T20, we have forgotten to focus on solution of the problems. We have seen other boards take serious actions when their teams were really weak (of the likes of England and India) and look where their teams are now.

I am from the age group who saw Pakistan in the 80s when West Indian team was a real force, they used to blow other teams away. Then i saw Pakistani Team challenging and winning on foreign soils for the first time (including West Indies, England, Australia, India etc.).

Here are some of my suggestions for saving Pakistan Cricket.

1st. First thing is that we are going to need new heroes, who can give believe, can inspire young kids to come to the game and commit themselves. Not of the likes of Akmals and Shahzads, Shoaib Malik, Hafeez or Muhammad Amir or Asif, but like Akrams, Imran Khan, Miandad, Waqar, Anwar, Saqlain etc.

2nd. We should immediately separate the Administrative part of the Cricket Board from the Cricketing related affairs. PCB must depute a Director of Cricket who will be solely responsible for the matters like Selection Committee, Players training and coaching, Domestic infrastructure etc. while the Administrative Incharge, the so-called Chairman of PCB should be taking over the responsibilities at Administrative level. This is a very successful model in all the successful sports teams these days, other international cricket boards (England, Australia etc) and famous football clubs. The Director of Cricket must be a cricketer who is retired in the recent era so that he has the idea of modern day cricket and its requirements. I would strongly disagree and oppose the appointments of the likes of Miandads, Zaheer Abbass etc as their style of Cricket is now obsolete in all forms of cricket.

3rd. Our Main coach MUST be a batting coach. The appointment of continuous bowling coaches has been a disaster. Geoff Lawson and Waqar Younus tenure has seen the rapid demise of quality of our batting. However a separate bowling coach with a good reputation and character of the likes of Aqib Javed should be hired in the coaching staff.

4th. Current Captain and the Coach "Must" be an automatic and permanent part of the selection Committee. Its a nonsense not to have them in the committee and then scrutinizing, blaming them after a defeat.

5th. Domestic Cricket must be divided into 2 or 3 divisions, First division should be modeled on PSL with limited number of teams to encourage and promote competition.

6th. The Academies must be invested heavily and main focus should be teaching them the new philosophy of Cricket from the very beginning. I have witnessed some real useless stuff being taught in the academies at cities level which simply doesnot belong to this modern era.

7th. Re-sizing of the PCB as it contains many unnecessary employees. A large amount of money is being paid to them which should really be going to regional cricket.

8th. The selection / Election Process of Chairmen of Cricket Association should immediately be modified. I will give you an example. The Chairman of Islamabad Cricket Association (ICA), can anyone tell me...
i. how he was elected ?
ii. for how long he was elected ?
iii. who is there to challenge him ?
iv. How he can be sacked or how a new Chairman will ever be elected ?

He is a Sports Reporter of Jang Group. I heard that there were some registered clubs of Islamabad who used to vote for ICA Chairman. After his so called "Election", a couple of those clubs do not even exist. So IT IS simply a dictatorship in ICA. The rest of the associations are either similar or even worst.

So the selection process of Chairmen of Cricket Association must be re-modified without any compromise. Cricket related matters should be handed over to the real people not the MAFIA, who capture Sports Grounds and use their status and power to achieve their own objectives. (I saw how they captured Cricket Ground of G-9, Islamabad).

Well, these are my suggestions. I used to love cricket and lived every moment of it. It hurts me so much seeing it dying slowly. I hope it doesn't end up like Pakistan Hockey. I would request you guys not to bash anyone, just come up with serious solutions and suggestions.
 
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MunchyMike

Minister (2k+ posts)
Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Ahmed Shahzad and Mohd Irfan should all be chucked
out for good. Hafeez should captain the T20 & Odi team with Sarafarz as vice captain.
 

kaka4u

Minister (2k+ posts)
again they r planning to captain hafeez, shoaib and shehzad

Where is Sarfarz? he was with team for long time v r not grooming him as captain
 

CANSUK

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Ahmed Shahzad and Mohd Irfan should all be chucked
out for good. Hafeez should captain the T20 & Odi team with Sarafarz as vice captain.

What did Hafeez do ? his performance is pathetic, can't bowl. Very average Opener even Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have better opener. He is with the team since last 11 years.
 

Shahid Abassi

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Matter of the fact is that we don't have good players in the pool. Every one wants Afridi out but no one has any replacement to mention. We simply don't have any all-rounder. Ok let's replace Hafeez and Shehzad. Have you answer to it?

We lose 50% of our matches due to bad fielding and lack of discipline in bowling. 20 more runs through this bad fielding are exactly the margin we lose matches with. Now first of all we don't have good fielders but more than that, non of the player is ready to dive to stop a boundary because he is afraid of an injury. With injury, he would go out, lose his income and may never come back in the team. Why don't you guaranty them that if an injury happens to a player in the match, he will get all the match fees in next one year and will be guaranteed a come back with at least 3 matches to show his form. Our bowlers give too many extras. We boast of good bowling unit but alone Mustfizur of Bangladesh has as many wickets as all of them.

Lastly, I would say in our society, the only way things will work is to get some coach with Australian game ethics. Give him full powers as in football. He selects his team and he is responsible for results. All our selection committees are making money. It will stop if the coach has selection powers. Why follow all others, why not try what works in football, the most played game. Let a cricket director, some one like Rameez to take care of the domestic and let the coach take care of the international. The coach can then be given advisers and field coaches.
 
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