Pakistan’s former chief selector and coach Haroon Rasheed has blamed a major change in the domestic cricket system during Imran Khan’s time as prime minister for the team’s downfall.
Pakistan have struggled badly in recent years, failing to reach the semi-finals of their last four ICC events. With the team going through another difficult phase, questions are again being raised about the domestic system and the way young players are developed. Earlier, S Badrinath takes dig at Gautam Gambhir over all-rounder obsession.
Haroon Rasheed points finger at Imran Khan over Pakistan cricket’s downfall
Haroon Rasheed said that Pakistan cricket started losing its standards after the domestic structure was changed during Imran Khan’s time as Prime Minister. The legendary all-rounder captained Pakistan to its first ODI World Cup title in 1992.
After his cricket career, Imran Khan entered politics and became Pakistan’s prime minister in 2018 after his party won the general elections. Soon after coming to power, Imran pushed for a major change in domestic cricket. The number of first-class teams was reduced from around 10-16 to only six.
The idea was based partly on the Australian domestic system, where a smaller number of strong teams play first-class cricket. However, Haroon believes that Pakistan needed a slower change instead of such a big reduction.
Speaking on a podcast on the ‘Smash It’ sports channel, Haroon Rasheed said: “I was part of the cricket board and task force, and I remember when we met with Imran, we submitted a hybrid domestic cricket model. But he rejected it outright.”
Haroon Rasheed reveals how Imran Khan rejected Pakistan’s domestic cricket plan
Haroon Rasheed was part of the task force formed to study Pakistan’s domestic cricket structure during Imran Khan’s time as Prime Minister. The group had prepared a hybrid model that was rejected by Imran. Amid this, Rahul Dravid names greatest international captain.
He further shared, “I remember we told Imran that the hybrid model was best for our cricket, as while we had reduced teams to eight, we had kept the participation of departmental teams in domestic cricket. But Imran, in his short meeting with us, rejected the hybrid model and said he didn’t want eight but a maximum of five to six teams in the domestic structure.
We told him it would be better to gradually switch to a new domestic structure, but eventually, you have to listen to the Prime Minister. He might have meant well, but it didn’t work out for Pakistan cricket.”
Haroon Rasheed reveals why India is ahead of Pakistan in cricket
Haroon shifted focus towards how many people pointed to India’s success and how strong a domestic system they have. He said that India kept their big tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy despite having the IPL.
He stressed that India’s success is not only because of the IPL. A strong domestic structure continues to produce players and keep competition high as the state associations also have their own regular competitions and club-level cricket.
Haroon added, “People talk about the IPL but forget that in India they still have the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy, and their state-level associations are independent and have their own regular domestic events at club level. In Pakistan, now all powers are with the PCB, which needs to decentralise power and give more independence to regional associations and departments, as was the case in the past.”
