Lashing out at PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja’s policies, former Pakistan test captain Salman Butt said that the chairman does not know anything about junior level cricket.
On his YouTube channel, Salman Butt said that Ramiz Raja’s policies make it seem he is unaware of the dynamics and requirements of grassroots cricket in Pakistan.
“In recent times, during school championships, there were players who did not belong to schools and were actually outsiders and yet were playing in the tournament,” he said, adding that the 50-over format and longer version of cricket are not in the plans of the current hierarchy of PCB as their policies give the perception of being focused on T20s only.
He claimed PCB is not choosing the right path for the development of cricket among budding cricketers.
“PCB is planning to hold Pakistan Junior League based on T20 format for that age group which has a World Cup of 50 overs in the international arena. There will be only a couple of players who will reach the level of PSL through the Pakistan Junior League,” he said.
He added “Pakistan Junior League will become a reason for the decline of skills and fitness of budding cricketers due to cricket based on four overs only. This will restrict the abilities of budding cricketers who will only prefer T20 format in their careers later.”
The policies of the PCB chairman seem to be forcefully trying to inject the T20 format into the budding cricketers of Pakistan, he said, adding that if Ramiz Raja really wants to hold a franchise-based tournament for U19 level, it should be based on a fifty overs format because there is no T20 world cup at the U19 level.
Talking about domestic cricket, Salman Butt claimed Ramiz Raja is not sharing facts with the cricket fraternity through his presentations uploaded on the social media platform of PCB.
“[The] PCB chairman claims that every domestic player earns up to Rs5 million annually but that is actually not the complete truth. Only those domestic players will be able to earn up to Rs5 million annu-ally who will feature in every match of every format in a domestic season. However, the truth is that hardly ten players are named in every format of the domestic season.”
“What about the financial future of those players whom PCB does not consider to play all three for-mats?” asked Salman Butt. He said Ramiz Raja is unable to tell the complete truth to the cricket fra-ternity of Pakistan.—Agencies
