Reviving departmental cricket will be tough task for PCB

KARACHI: It would be a Herculean task for the PCB Management Committee under its chief Najam Sethi to convince a handful of major departments to revive their cricket teams.

The departmental cricket system had been abolished by the PTI regime under the then premier Imran Khan in 2019 but even before that some major departments had quit the cricket circle by disbanding their teams knowing that it was a huge financial burden on their shoulders.

In September last year the PTI-led government had issued a directive to the departments to stop funding their sports teams and rather divert it to support regional teams. Recently the premier Shahbaz Sharif withdrew that notification of the PTI regime and departmental sports was restored. But still the ground reality is that some departments are reluctant to follow the state instructions and have not yet revived their sports teams.

It would be interesting to see what will happen on the cricket front.

But a source in the PCB Management Committee is optimistic that Najam Sethi has the calibre to convince departments to revive their cricket teams which is very important for reviving the departmental cricket structure which had given jobs to thousands of cricketers.

“Yes its very much on card. Either a committee will be formed or Najam Sethi himself will take the step to meet the heads of major departments to convince them to revive their cricket teams,” the source told 'The News' on Saturday.

The source agreed that some problems may come on the way to achieve the goal but was quite convinced that Sethi can do the job.

“Yes the issues may come on the way but I think he is confident and he will be able to bring the departmental cricket back as per the desire of the premier and the requirement of the PCB 2014 Constitution,” the source said.

Asked whether any such discussion has been made in the PCB Management Committee meetings that in future if PTI forms government in the centre again regional system may be restored the source said this thing was raised.

“Yes such matter was raised but Sethi said that currently he is to restore the departmental cricket system and he cannot say anything about the future,” the source said.

The source said that Sethi is scheduled to come to Karachi and will also witness the first Test between Pakistan and New Zealand which will begin from Monday (tomorrow).

“During his Karachi visit he may have some important meetings also,” the source said.

The source said that effort would be made to revive the departmental cricket with the possible modifications which could help cricket in future.

The source said that after the New Zealand series a permanent selection committee for the men's cricket team will be formed.

PCB on Saturday constituted an interim selection committee for the New Zealand series with former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi as its chief. Test cricketers Abdul Razzaq and Rao Iftikhar are its members with Haroon Rasheed as its convener. Haroon is also member of the PCB Management Committee.

Asked whether Shahid Afridi will also be the chief selector when a permanent selection committee will be formed the source said he does not know.

“I don't know that but yes Afridi is very close to Sethi,” the source said.

The PCB Management Committee has ahead a tough task during the next four months (120 days) to revive the 2014 PCB Constitution.

The ongoing Pakistan Cup and Cricket Associations events are being completed as per the 2019 set up.