KARACHI: The regional and departmental cricket teams who have been ousted from the first class cricket have serious reservations about the PCB’s decision and are considering various options, including litigation, ‘The News’ has learnt. The PCB’s new format is shocking and it seems that the people at the helm of affairs have no idea what damage it could do to the country’s cricket, officials of the affected teams said. They said that 12 departments spent more than Rs360 million annually on teams’ development. The cricket teams which have been affected by the PCB decision are KPT, Multan, Karachi Zebras, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Lahore Eagles, Abbottabad, Bahawalpur and FATA. PCB Governing Board, in its meeting in Lahore on June 13, unanimously approved restructuring of domestic cricket according to which 12 top-ranked teams (six regional and six departmental) on the basis of their standing in the last season’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy will get their status confirmed as first class teams shall automatically be eligible to participate in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in the season 2015-16. These teams are SNGPL, NBP, PQA, WAPDA, UBL, HBL, Karachi Division, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore Lions, Hyderabad. The remaining 14 teams (eight regional and six departmental) will participate in a qualifying round to be held separately. These teams are ZTBL, SSGC, KRL, PIA, SBP, KPT, Multan, Karachi Zebras, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Lahore Eagles, Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, and FATA. According to the new format, the top two teams each from the regional qualifying round and departmental qualifying round will qualify for first class cricket in 2015-16. As a result, eight regional and eight departmental teams will participate in 2015-16. The remaining regional teams will play in QAT (G-11) along with DM Jamali, Larkana, AJK and Quetta. They will form a group of 10 teams to play three-day matches, which is not first-class cricket. KPT Sports Manager Shah Naeem Zafar told ‘The News’ they had reservations about the new format. “It was taken without taking us into confidence,” he said. Naeem said that KPT were the winners of Patron’s Trophy and PCB itself had written to them to play first class cricket from this season. “Now they are making us play the qualifying rounds. How is it possible,” he asked. He said that PCB was playing with the future of cricket and dozens of cricketers would be pushed away from first-class cricket. “They cannot play professional cricket in England and other countries,” he said. The sports manager further said that KPT had sent a communiqué to PCB on Wednesday with the signature of competent KPT authority and asked for a review of the decision. “Otherwise we have no option but to knock at the doors of every forum to get justice,” he said. Naeem added that Pakistan had already been in isolation. “Our players are not playing IPL, BPL. Now if we do not allow our departments in domestic cricket, how can our cricket and cricketers survive!” he said. He said that the sports heads of other departments would gather soon to form a strategy. A source said it was unfathomable that the team of PIA, which had great services in Pakistan’s sports history, would have to play qualifying round. It’s a team that introduced Imran Khan, Majid Khan, Mushtaq Muhammad and Asif Iqbal, he said. PIA sports head and former test cricketer Shoaib Muhammad termed the decision a great loss for Pakistan cricket and requested PCB to review it. He said that a number of cricketers would be deprived of first-class cricket due to this wrong policy. “Who knows how many star cricketers this bunch of cricketers has who will not play first class due to this wrong policy,” he said. Besides these cricketers would also be deprived of opportunities in league and professional cricket in England and other countries because they hired only those who had played first cricket, he said. He said PCB should think if departments like PIA, KPT, SSGC, ZTBL were deprived of playing first class cricket why their administrations would spend huge money and provide jobs to cricketers. “The consequences of this decision would be very bad,” said Shoaib. Masood Anwer, manager sports at ZTBL, also opposed the PCB’s move. He said first they launched the Gold and Silver Leagues without taking departments in confidence. “They said the system would be for three years, but now the same people have abolished this system after only eight months and introduced a new format,” he said. Masood asked PCB what its vision was as it kept changing the structure after every season. “PCB did not give us a single penny. The people who are taking such ridiculous decisions have not worked at the grassroots so they do not know the pros and cons of this issue,” he said. He said the real problem was the inconsistent policies of Pakistan cricket authorities.
