Lahore
The Pakistan Cricket Board Saturday unveiled an ambitious and competitive 2019-20 domestic cricket season structure, which revolves around devising a more quality and intensity focused system to significantly improve first-class cricket and create sustainable success at international level.
The new 2019-20 structure was unfolded by PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani, Chief Executive Wasim Khan and Director Domestic Cricket Operations Haroon Rasheed at a ceremony here at the Gadaffi Stadium.
The new structure will give importance to club cricket, provide the best cricketing environment to young talented cricketers, reward top performers, create employment opportunities to former cricketers and qualified coaches, and bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket.
According to the new structure, which came into existence following the government’s August 9 approval of the constitutional amendments which were notified to the PCB on August 19, 16 regions have now been absorbed into the newly formed associations, as follows:
– Sindh Cricket Association includes Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana. – Balochistan Cricket Association comprises Dera Murad Jamali and Quetta.
– Southern Punjab Cricket Association includes Multan and Bahawalpur. – Central Punjab Cricket Association is made up of Faisalabad, Sialkot and Lahore.
– Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cricket Association includes Peshawar, erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Abbottabad. Northern Cricket Association comprises Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Azad-Jammu Kashmir.
In the new system, an opportunity would be given for the best talent to perform and be recognized.
The new domestic structure will be based on a three-tiered bottom-up approach – providing a clear pathway for the aspiring cricketers to graduate to the top level, bringing in more young and talented cricketers in the system. The three-layered structure will function as follows:
“In the first tier, the 90 city cricket associations will be responsible for organizing club and school cricket in their respective jurisdictions and subsequently forming their city cricket teams.
“In the second tier, the city cricket teams will participate in intra-city competitions within the jurisdiction of their cricket associations.
“In the third tier, the best performing players from the intra-city competitions will form the six respective cricket association side that will participate in the PCB-organized tournaments.”
Underpinning the pathway system will be six High Performance Programmes which will provide quality cricket and lifestyle plans to equip players with the all-round skills required in the modern game. Incentivising high-performing players whose earnings will also increase in the new structure.
Thirty-two non-PCB centrally contracted players would be awarded annual domestic contracts at each cricket association and will feature in first-class, non-first class, List A, and T20 tournaments during a season.
The cricket associations will also be free to select players from outside the pool of 32 contracted players on per-match payment.
Each of the domestic contracted players will receive monthly retainers of PKR 50,000 and it is anticipated that a high-performing player will earn between PKR 2million and PKR 2.5million per season in terms of allowances, match fees and prize money (details to be announced in due course).
Besides the players, the new structure is also expected to create employment opportunities for the qualified coaching staff and former cricketers. Along with the administrative roles, each cricket association will have a players’ support personnel staff which will include head coaches, batting coaches, bowling coaches, fielding coaches, trainers, physiotherapists and video analysts to look after first class, second XI, U19, U16, U13 teams and high performance programmes.
There will also be three selectors working with a cricket association each. Event dates are, Pakistan’s cricketing season 2019-20 will commence from September 14 with the first round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the country’s premier first-class tournament.—APP