Pakistan\u2019s first-class cricket is set to return to a model featuring both regions and departments
\n Islamabad
\nThe Pakistan Cricket Board has invited the country\u2019s private and government departments besides three military institutes to be part of the domestic circuit. The PCB has initiated a restructuring of domestic cricket, and a return to the 16-team hybrid first-class model featuring both regions and departments.
\nThe PCB has already abolished the previous six-team model after the completion of the 2022-23 season in the first week of January.
\n\u201cThe Pakistan Cricket Board has formally written to 27 leading departments, seeking their interest in participating in the PCB Domestic Cricket Season 2023-24, which will start in August,\u201d the PCB confirmed through a press release.
\n\u201cIn the letters, the PCB has not only invited the departments to confirm their participation in the upcoming season at their earliest convenience [which] can help them prepare the season\u2019s calendar but has also encouraged them to set up strong cricket sides, assuring them maximum coverage and publicity through the traditional and new media.\u201d
\nIn the new structure, eight regional teams and eight department teams will play in the premier first-class tournament, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Every season, the regional and department teams finishing bottom get relegated and two toppers (one region and one department) from the Grade 2 tournament will be promoted.
\nAlthough the 2023-24 season effectively starts in August, the Pakistan government had given the new head of the PCB, Najam Sethi, 120 days (starting from December 21, 2022) to reset the set-up and go back to the 2014 constitution.
\nRacing against time, the PCB management committee is making every effort to return to the previous model, reviving the 97 districts that make up the 16 regions. There are around 3200 clubs already functioning across the country and are the major feeders of players into the regional system.
\nThe Pakistan government recently removed Ramiz Raja and his Board by revoking the 2019 constitution the PCB was operating under and brought back Najam Sethi to head the management committee, giving it full executive powers to work on reviving the constitution of 2014. Aside from the changes in the board and its structure, that constitution will also bring back department sides into the domestic circuit – they had been removed in 2019 after former Pakistan captain Imran Khan became the Prime Minister of the country (the PM automatically becomes the PCB\u2019s patron).
\nEven though the PCB has reached out to the departments, it\u2019s not clear if the departments are willing to revive their teams in the current economic climate. There might not be much appetite for such organisations to hire a squad of cricketers. A number of department sides had shut down their sporting operations even before Imran\u2019s changes, with Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and United Bank Limited (UBL) among the prominent ones to do so.
\nPM Shahbaz Sharif, the PCB\u2019s current patron-in-chief, had already issued a directive in October last year to all 18 government departments\/institutes to restore the governance of their sports structure in Pakistan and restart the financing of sports departments. The pick-up on that has been slow – ESPNcricinfo understands that Ramiz Raja as chairman had written to private banks to ask about reviving their teams but they had shown little interest. Various government departments are dependent on government budgets and haven\u2019t allocated a budget since the PM\u2019s notification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan\u2019s first-class cricket is set to return to a model featuring both regions and departments Islamabad The Pakistan Cricket Board has invited the country\u2019s private and government departments besides three military institutes to be part of the domestic circuit. The PCB has initiated a restructuring of domestic cricket, and a return to the 16-team hybrid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n