Cricket body asks PCB to explore a window for departmental cricket

LAHORE: The PCB Cricket Committee has asked the board to find a window for a tournament featuring department teams from next season.

The PCB Cricket Committee held its first meeting of 2020 under the chairmanship of former Test spinner Iqbal Qasim. Wasim Akram, Umar Gul, Urooj Mumtaz, Ali Naqvi, Wasim Khan and Zakir Khan (both co-opted members) attended the session. Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq and Haroon Rashid, Director – Domestic cricket operations, attended meeting on special invitations.

The cricket committee recommended the PCB should explore a window in the 2020-21 domestic cricket to slot in a tournament for departments. In this relation, Director – Domestic cricket operations, Haroon Rashid, has been requested to look into the potential window in the next season and update the cricket committee at the next meeting, which is expected in April.

Haroon briefed the committee that the PCB has hosted 12 tournaments, comprising 190 matches, in the season to date. The committee requested that updates on the areas for improvement be provided at next meeting in April.

There was a discussion on the appointment of the six Cricket Association coaches and the process that will be adopted for analysing and assessing their performance. It was agreed that further investment in developing the knowledge, skills and capabilities of the elite coaches was needed in order to adopt more modern practices.

PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan briefed the committee that a more through fit for purpose and revised No Objection Certificate (NOC) policy for players had been developed. The committee supported the revised NOC policy, while requesting that the PCB should fully and strictly follow it to ensure that Pakistan’s elite cricketers continue to give precedence to domestic tournaments above all else.

Misbah informed the committee that he had developed a nucleus of players, especially across Twenty20 cricket. The former captain added the HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 will help him give final shape to his pool of players for this year’s Asia Cup and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The committee insisted more investment, effort and work was needed to further promote and develop women’s cricket.