The ongoing domestic T20 Cup is the embodiment of the failure of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as a competent unit, to put it mildly.

The current tournament, which kicked off in Karachi on September 17, is the 11th edition of Pakistan’s domestic league.

Eleven chances to get it right and not a single availed.

The empty stands and poor organization at last night’s match between two of the top sides, Karachi Dolphins and Sialkot Stallions, bore witness to the sorry state of cricket in the country.

Sure, Pakistan has not hosted an international match since 2009, and naturally, interest maybe waning among the locals.

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But looking at this T20 cup, I see lots of potential wasted through horrendous execution of whatever plan there is in place. Barring big names like the Lahore Lions team, all the stars of the Pakistan cricket team are playing the current event. There is music and tons of sponsors, but the event still doesn't seem to have been marketed properly.

And the timing of the event is particularly appalling, as Waqar Younis and Misbahul Haq are known to have pointed out.

I arrived at the National Stadium on Sunday to watch what seemed to promise a competitive game of cricket. It was the Karachi Dolphins vs. Sialkot Stallions.

More than half the players from both these sides have appeared in national colours, and some are still in the current squad.

Names like Shahid Afridi, Bilawal Bhatti, Sarfaraz Ahmad, Anwar Ali and Asad Shafiq should have drawn in numbers, but even those that did turn up were given a hard time.

There were a dozen irrelevant individuals manning the gate, and barring people from entering the stadium. Whatever little spirit the fans had come in with, dimmed at the blockade and most left without entering the stadium.

But let’s come back to the significance of this tournament.

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The whole point of pumping money into these domestic fixtures is to seek potential stars to groom and induct into the national playing XI. A conversation with Basit Ali told me that the beauty of this tournament was the number of teams playing, which allowed players from even the smaller regions to shine and get noticed by the selectors.

He was of the opinion that barring a few minor issues, the PCB had actually pulled off a half-decent event.

His goggles differed from mine. I was made aware earlier in the day that barely any selectors had shown up for these matches and those who had attended came for a few token hours.

Basit Ali made excuses for the lack of promotion, claiming that given the hasty shift from Multan, billboards failed to be printed and transported in time.

Such is the management of PCB, lax and disinterested.

In this day and age, televised matches can turn unknown athletes into stars. The PCB had signed a deal with PTV sports to air these matches. The Champions League T20, which is now relevant given the qualification of the Lahore Lions, conflicted with the T20 cup. PTV Sports’ solution to the problem was to simply switch over to the more lucrative tournament, violating their contract and leaving sponsors of the tournament high and dry.

What happened to Geo Super? It is showing neither of these tournaments when it could have given the domestic league the kind of attention it deserves.

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What’s worse is that PTV had been running promos for the Champions League matches days before the T20 cup began. So why didn’t the PCB take notice and take action until it was too late? It’s bad enough that they scheduled it at the same time as the Champions League.

As I looked around on a breezy Sunday evening to what should have been a packed stadium, the need for change became even more imminent.

Pakistan Cricket Board has shouldered too many egos and hosted too many political personalities to ever actually be a fully functional governing body. The constant change of chairmen, the muddled policies, the delusion of pride and inability of the management to see fault in their systems means that we are stuck in a rut.

Even under the floodlights, the dusty seats and deafening silence of an invisible crowd mocked a ground that once witnessed records and created legends.