LAHORE: Pakistan’s cricket administration yesterday unveiled a new domestic league revamp, though demands to remove commercial and government department teams from the competition were ignored.
Pakistan has long suffered from a below-par domestic structure. Many of its cricket heroes, such as Javed Miandad, honed their skills in street games rather than with teams.
The new championship will have two divisions.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi (pictured) said that under the new structure regional teams could receive private sponsorship so that they can compete with better-funded government departments and teams run by private companies such as banks. But former captain and chief selector Aamir Sohail slammed the proposed changes and said the regional teams would struggle to compete financially. “The PCB don’t know how to administer the game. When regions don’t have full fledged offices and no marketing people they can’t do this,” Sohail said.
Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has also been a vocal critic of the domestic championship, demanding that commercial organisations be excluded.
The PCB’s director of game development Haroon Rasheed said the new domestic cricket championship would have two first-class divisions.
“The division one tournament will be called ‘Gold league’ comprising six regional and six departmental teams while the division two will be ‘Silver league’ with seven department and as many regional teams,” he said.
Each year, the bottom two teams from division one will be relegated and the two top teams from division two promoted, he added. Also yesterday, PCB said next week it will adopt a new constitution intended to make the appointment of its chairman more democratic and weaken political influence.
The changes come as the board prepares to hold a fresh election to end a long-running power struggle for the top job.
“The amended constitution is approved by the Supreme Court and is a truly democratic document and will guarantee an end to the uncertainty in the PCB,” acting chairman Najam Sethi said yesterday.
The post of PCB chairman has changed five times since May over an electoral dispute.
According to the new constitution, the holder of the post -- which was previously filled by the government of the day -- will now be elected from a ten-member Board of Governors.
Observers say the move will weaken the influence of the national prime minister because he will only nominate two of the board’s 10 members.
Sethi has announced he would not contest the election but would remain part of the board.
The new chairman must hold a bachelors degree, be a citizen of Pakistan and have a clean criminal record.
A PCB chairman will be elected for a three-year tenure but can be voted out by the board. He may be re-elected once.
The International Cricket Council had warned member countries of sanctions unless they ended government interference in the sport by June 2013.
But the world body later backed down on the warning, saying it was not viable in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where existing governments have a major say in cricketing matters.
REUTERS
