LAHORE: After failing to restore domestic cricket structure during more than two and a half years according to the new constitution, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has now decided to outsource the process of the scrutiny of clubs across the country.

The PCB, in this regard, has given an advertisement on its website seeking bids for the scrutiny process.

Interestingly, it is the first time that the PCB is going to outsource the scrutiny of clubs. And how it will get an experienced organisation to do this job remains a big question. According to the PCB, around 4,000 clubs from across the country have applied for registration.

The PCB, which implemented its new constitution on Aug 19, 2019, has struggled to make its domestic structure functional as the entire system is being run on an ad-hoc basis.

After implementing its new constitution, the PCB dissolved all clubs, districts and regional associations’ bodies affiliated with it. After almost one and a half years, the PCB could appoint only an ad-hoc body for six provincial cricket associations to run domestic cricket. These bodies were formed for one year on March 5, 2021 but the delay in completing clubs’ registration and scrutiny, the tenure of the six associations on ad-hoc was extended for six months on March 5 this year.

For the registration, the PCB received millions of rupees from the 4,000 clubs seeking to get registered. The new PCB constitution was introduced by Ehsan Mani as chairman but he failed to implement it during its three-year tenure.

His predecessor Ramiz Raja, though took charge on Sept 11, 2021, still there is a lot of work pending as regards full restoration of the country’s domestic cricket. And as there are chances that Prime Minister Imran Khan may lose his premiership as a result of the no-confidence vote in the Parliament, the change of guard in the PCB, as per the organisation’s tradition, is also expected.

And it is likely that the new political development at the helm may bring in a new PCB chairman and the work on restoring the domestic cricket system maybe delayed, or altogether a new system may be introduced.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2022