KARACHI The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in their endeavour to close the bridge between international and domestic cricket is in the midst of revamping the Lahorebased National Cricket Academy (NCA) by renaming the facility as the National High Performance Centre (NHPC). Wasim Khan, the chief executive officer of PCB, while sharing details of the new venture with media on Friday, expressed confidence that the incoming setup would help to improve the overall standard of cricket in the country. “We have already sought applications to this effect by advertising four key positions which are going to be part of core team of the newly-instituted National High Performance Centre which will interlink with the regional high performance centres in Karachi and Multan,” Wasim revealed. “In the next phase we are going to have further regional centres in Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta. The salient feature of this exercise is to streamline system to make it more effective and to close the gap between domestic and international cricket. In the first segment, PCB will be appointing Director High Performance, Head of High Performance Coaching, Head of International Player Development and High Performance Operations Manager with April 29 being the deadline for applying process. “Apart from bridging the gap [between domestic and international cricket], the new system will support the creation of a more streamlined and joined up structure,” Wasim explained. “Because historically the NCA has supported training camps for our international men and women teams, while our domestic department has primarily run our first-class game. Both these areas will now be brought together under a Director High Performance who will have his operational teams working under him across domestic and high performance. That’s why we have now decided to rename the existing NCA as the National High Performance Centre. “My philosophy is clear-cut because our prime objective in the planned changes in the structure is by ensuring areas such as facilities, playing surfaces, coaching and programmes support our aims at international level which will become a more focussed priority through a shared-goal across both areas.” Elaborating as to how will it all work at different tiers in the coming setup, Wasim said: “The respective roles of Academy Director and Director Domestic will no longer exist and will instead be replaced by a Director of High Performance, Head of International Development and Head of High Performance Coaching. “The Head of High Performance Coaching is responsible for raising the standard of coaching support to the most talented players, and for ensuring that the Cricket Association network is aligned behind the national strategy. “This role holder will set up re-training programmes for Level III and Level IV coaches and will also revamp our current coaching course in line with international standards. The Head of International Player Development will be responsible for comprehensively identifying, developing and preparing players so that they become world-class cricketers for the senior Pakistan men’s team. The High Performance (HP) set-up will support the six Cricket Association coaching set-ups and their High Performance programmes.” Wasim, the brainchild behind the ambitious scheme, observed that the six cricket associations would liaison between the NHPC and the development programme in their respective territory to become more viable. “The HP team will liaise and work closely with the Cricket Association set-ups where the PCB medical and sport science team is already aligned and supporting the ongoing development of the six associations’ medical teams. The principle will be the same on coach education and player development. Wasim confirmed that only the NCA will be renamed while the HP centres would operate under their current status. “As you know we already have the HP centres in Karachi and Multan, with Peshawar, Quetta and Rawalpindi in the pipeline. It is important to note that when we launched the new six team structure, I made it clear that it could take three years before it is properly up and running. “A complete overhaul of the old domestic structure to a new fully operational revamped structure takes time. And I’m very confident that we are moving in the right direction.—Agencies
