DOMESTIC cricket, ‘the sacred cow’ of Pakistan’s first-class and limited-overs games, is now being brought on to the chopping block on the pretext of revamping the existing system which uniquely has both the regional and commercial organisations competing for more than five decades, producing some of the finest cricketers of the world.

The idea of eliminating the commercial organisation teams and asking their stakeholders to back and sponsor the regional teams and thus raise the level of the competition has neither the merits nor the vision, and all those who have Pakistan cricket dear to their hearts would vouch that this is no less than a recipe for disaster.

It was Abdul Hafeez Kardar, the first Pakistan Test captain, who initiated the need to allow the commercial concerns to form their own teams and participate alongside the regional and district teams to unearth talent from every nook and corner of the country, knowing fully well that just the limited number of regional teams will be unable to have the supply chain to sustain an international outfit like Pakistan.

Kardar, also having first-hand knowledge of the game in Pakistan and having seen the plight of the cricketers at all levels, had floated the idea so that youngsters playing the game would also have secured jobs, a career and with it cricket. And then the same players would act as the lifeline for the national teams. He had in mind the state of the economy of the country and its urgent demands well in focus.

As a result, the game spread and the standard went up. The players who emerged took up the challenge and proved their mettle while taking on the international teams. Previously, the game was restricted to only Karachi and Lahore from where most of the Test cricketers came. But by the introduction of banks, airline and other teams from the commercial organisations, the domestic competitions became not only intense and competitive but also the number of matches increased substantially.

Most of the cricketers who made their names at international level after the 1960s were the products of the system which Kardar introduced. That included such big names of Pakistan cricket as Wasim Bari, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Mohsin Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Raja, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar, Aamir Sohail, Mudassar Nazar, Iqbal Qasim, Abdul Qadir, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Mohsin Khan, Moin Khan, Saleem Yousuf, Rashid Latif, Salim Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq and many more of the modern time had all emerged having played in that system.

This is another matter that those responsible to run the game at board level failed in their duty to cement the system further and on a professional scale.

When I played for Sindh (Sind as it was spelt then), South Zone and Hyderabad from the middle of the fifties to early 1960s there were only six or seven teams and only two or three matches we could play in a year and that included even the Test players of great stature like Hanif Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood.

Only a handful turned up to watch those greats. Grounds and stadiums remained empty. There were neither supporters nor any sponsors. While playing for Sind and Hyderabad I was getting ten rupees a day and was put in ramshackle hotels in Karachi when playing against them in the metropolis.

We can see the difference now that the players are well employed, have a decent salary and a chance to get to the top.

Having played at first-class level and being privileged to have seen first-class cricket of every cricket playing country except Bangladesh, I have the first-hand knowledge of how regional teams are supported at first-class level.

Only a handful turn up to watch and mostly those especially in county cricket come to have a drink inside the premises of the ground because the bars outside have a opening and closing time and therefore no facilities to enjoy the amber nectar. Same is the case in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and other countries. Only limited over games attracted people then and more so now.

The PCB is ill-advised about the whole thing and if they think that commercial organisations, having lost their teams, would back the regional teams for long then they are grossly mistaken. Why should they? They would instead spend on big bill-boards and hoardings to sponsor lucrative returns rather than sponsoring regions which from the time immemorial have always been accused of mismanagement, corruption and nepotism in team selection.

More than that, in this day and age there is even greater chance of the regional teams being bribed and lured into match-fixing.

I think the PCB officials should think twice about the whole thing and should only have competent people advising them about it before jumping to conclusion and then later regret.

Don’t shoot your own foot and don’t bite the hand that has fed and sustained the game for the good of every one.