LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is gearing up to start the revamp of the domestic structure, switching from 16 regional bodies and to six provincial teams and has invited representatives of 11 departments for a meeting in the last week of this month to ask them to sponsor a provincial team instead of fielding their own from the next domestic season.

It has been learnt that the meeting has been summoned after Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the new system and his secretariat has also instructed 11 government sector departments to cooperate with the PCB in implementing the new system. The six provincial teams will have two from Punjab and one each from the Northern Areas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.

But the biggest problem for the PCB remains over how to convince the departments to sponsor the provincial teams without giving them any strong administrative role in the running of the teams. With the provincial bodies to come through elections, they will also demand powers in selection, coaching and administration of the teams.

Amid all that, there is very little time to settle all that as the next domestic season is to start from September and several arrangements for the teams including hotels, transportation, kits, draws and the appointment of the match officials have to be made.

Moreover, Dawn has learnt that the revamp will result in dwindling representation of main cricket centres of the country like Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar in the provincial bodies.

In Sindh, there is little chance of a representative from Karachi claiming the seat of the president or secretary of the provincial cricket association with reports that Hyderabad and Larkana have come into a power-sharing agreement. Hyderabad has seven votes (Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Badin, Thatta, Shaheed Benazirabad and Jamshoro) and with Larkana’s six (Larkana, Dadu, Khairpur, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad), they will easily outnumber Karachi’s seven (zone-I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII).

Punjab will be divided into central and south regions. In Central Punjab, the biggest centre of Lahore with three zones (west, central and east) is under threat from a Faisalabad-Sialkot alliance with the duo having a total of 13 votes.

South Punjab, however, will see a close contest with the main centres of Multan and Bahawalpur both having seven votes each. A strong political personality of Multan, linked to the country’s ruling party, has expressed interest in contesting the election and there are reports that to accommodate the personality, the PCB may make an amendment in its constitution. The current rule allows former MNAs to contest elections only after they have passed a two-year period since leaving their role.

The dynamics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have changed since Fata was merged into it. Peshawar has no cordial relationship with Abbotabad (seven districts) and Fata (10) and might find itself in a fight if the other two form an alliance.

The Northern Areas association, meanwhile, is very likely to get a president and secretary from Islamabad and Rawalpindi districts as other districts, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir may not be able to field any strong candidates.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2019