Maybe few people know that what has happened to the report submitted by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani, who headed the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Sports, to restructure the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and make Olympic sports at par with UK-based system.The report submitted to the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) in February 2019 has been dumped in files.
Majority of the stakeholders in sports infrastructure have expressed serious concerns over the report, saying that it has no real connection to the prevailing problems as it was prepared while keeping in view the prevailing rules for sports development and administration in the United Kingdom. The ministry, however, never paid any heed to the task force’s recommendations.
Now there is a need for restructuring club cricket in the country. The PCB has already invited the cricket clubs for registration, setting the toughest conditions that were never there in the past in domestic cricket.
Admitted that there is a need to differentiate between active and non-active cricket clubs but doing so the danger associated with it may have far more serious consequences. The biggest fear is that country’s cricket may lose some of the long-serving and the most active clubs which have extended services for the uplift of cricket. Several clubs across the country have been playing role in spotting and grooming the talent.
Sports culture in Pakistan is totally opposite to the one we find in the United Kingdom.
Many must have heard to the sayings of cricket greats like Javed Miandad and late Abdul Qadir that they initially had worked as curators, groundsmen. Individuals and players’ passion and love for the game had kept the club cricket alive in the country.
Without the love these individuals had for the game, the country would not have produced the game’s icons.
Pakistan cricket greats are the product of club cricket as the majority of club owners have no other motives but to serve the game of cricket.
But the rules and financial implications associated with the process of club’s registration may discourage the passionate club owners to continue their services for uplift of the game.
In fact, the PCB has already announced the active and non-active clubs by declaring that only those clubs which had played the Fazal Mehmood Trophy almost three years back can apply for the registration.
Now comes the financial aspect involved in the registration process which has been made all the more difficult. Had there been just 5,000 to 10,000 rupees involved in pacifying the board’s requirements, it would not have been a big deal. The majority of the club owners seem irritated with the total expenditures in the run up to the registration that for full membership goes up to Rs100,000 and for associate members Rs70,000. The condition that every voting member will have to pay Rs5000 is something unprecedented.
The club seeking the associate membership should have ten members with voting rights for the club and each member will have to pay Rs5000.
In case a club is seeking full membership, then the financial requirements get more heavy. Besides the initial financial requirements, the maintainers, annual fee, and hiring the professionals for each job is something more difficult as it requires extra finances.
To say that you must be a rich man if you want to run a recognised cricket club in Pakistan from here on would be no exaggeration.
In developed countries like Australia and England sports followers never get shy of investing in the game’s uplift while in Pakistan, in the wake of prevailing financial conditions, such requirements would only discourage genuine promoters of the game.
The PCB must revisit conditions set for the registration and try to make these easier and affordable for those having a true love for the game. Those who have served the game through thick and thin deserve better treatment. For the last two years when the PCB was in a deep sleep and could not generate club activities then these club owners came to the rescue of the game by staying active for the sake of youth.
