LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Managing Director Wasim Khan on Sunday stressed the need to tackle the structure of domestic cricket in the country in order to achieve sustainability and consistency in Pakistan’s performance.

Wasim, while addressing a press conference in Lahore along PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani, acknowledged that the national team’s performance was “not good at an international level, particularly in Test cricket”.

“Our actual problem is at the grassroots, in the system,” Wasim said, explaining that it is important to strengthen the domestic cricketing structure. “The system isn’t strong, and we know that because [of] the result we are seeing, the inconsistency we are seeing.”

The PCB MD said that the body would consult stakeholders and do their best to provide this strength.

“There is no sustainability in our success at an international level, so we are not looking at a short-term solution, we are looking at it for the long-term,” Wasim asserted, adding that they would try to develop sustainability.

The new MD said that the PCB’s job was to examine the system of domestic cricket and foster a culture around the sport in schools and at a district level. He termed Mani’s vision for domestic cricket as “very clear”.

“The system has been build up over many, many years, and you don’t break a system down overnight,” he said.

He conceded that revamping the domestic structure would pose a challenge since a number of departments and regions are embedded within it.

On Dec 6, PCB confirmed the appointment of Wasim as its managing director. Wasim on Sunday thanked Mani and the PCB for finding him suitable for the post.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2019