PCB BoG okays task force recommendations on domestic cricket

KARACHI: As was expected both departments and regions will continue to play a key role in Pakistan’s domestic cricket, but in a different way.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Board of Governors (BoG) on Tuesday approved the recommendations of the task force relating to domestic cricket.“The task force report on domestic cricket structure was also discussed at length. The BoG has approved the conceptual framework recommended by the task force in which both the departments and regions will continue to have an important role,” the PCB said in a press release it issued after its 51st BoG meeting held at the National Cricket Academy Lahore.

“It was reiterated that the interest of all stakeholders, especially the players, will be safeguarded. The task force has been advised to work on the details of the structure based on the constitutional and financial parameters,” it added.

Meanwhile, a source who attended the BoG meeting, told this correspondent that in the new system regions would be merged with departments. “A region will be merged with a department to form a single unit or a team. It will have a Board of Governors which will take important decisions. It will have its own marketing, media and other wings which are necessary for stabilising a team,” the source said.

“There are eight departmental and eight regional sides in the first-class cricket structure. If these are merged with each other so eight teams will be created,” the source said.“It will be a good system and will strengthen the domestic cricket. The people feared that role of departments would be minimised. It is not going to happen but rather the role of departments has been increased,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the PCB said that chairman Ehsan Mani presented his report which dealt with restructuring of the PCB to professionalise the organisation. “The BoG was also updated on the new appointments being made, including Managing Director PCB, Director Media and Communication, Chief Strategy Implementation Officer and Project Consultant (Marketing),” the press release said.

The BoG, after deliberations, also approved the budget for HBL PSL 2019, it said. The BoG was also updated on the arrangements about the upcoming HBL PSL and the progress of the sales of HBL PSL commercial rights.

It said the Audit and Cricket Committee reports were also presented while the BoG was given a comprehensive briefing on the outcome of the PCB-BCCI dispute.“The BoG was informed that the Independent Disputes Resolution Committee’s decision on the legal costs of the dispute was expected to be announced by the ICC on Wednesday and the PCB was confident that the costs liability against it would be substantially less than what has recently been reported in a section of the media,” it added.The BOG has approved a 20 percent increase in the payment to former cricketers under the Players’ Welfare Policy 2015.