18 January 2004	Sunday	25 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 17: Current Pakistan players should be compelled to participate in at least 70 per cent of matches in the domestic season in order that the standard of the competition is raised.

This was one of the salient points taken up at the one-day seminar organized by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) at National Stadium on Saturday.

The seminar was attended by several past and present Test cricketers including Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Bari, Sadiq Mohammad, Rashid Latif, Mansoor Akhtar, Shahid Israr, Hasib Ahsan, and a host of officials representing various departments, associations and clubs.

The foremost issue that was thoroughly discussed was the role of departments in domestic first-class structure. While emphasizing the need for a regional cricket set-up, most speakers were of the view that departments are just as important as the associations and that there should be room for both.

It was unanimously agreed that the game should be promoted in the remote areas of the country and players belonging to small towns and villages be encouraged accordingly.

Professional and qualified coaches should be assigned to associations in the far flung places for a period of six weeks before the start of the season for better grooming of cricketers.

It was also pointed out that there was a strong need for an academy for the budding coaches where highly qualified ones will impart training and other methods of coaching on modern and scientific lines.

Rashid Latif urged the PCB to help revive inter-school cricket in conjunction with the country's directorates of education so that the game flourished from grassroots level.

He also proposed that club cricket be played on matting wickets as was the case in the 1950s and 60s. That would helped in improving the playing technique of cricketers.