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LAHORE: In a surprising decision, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has discarded the Champions Cup, the country’s premier domestic event, after only one season, well-informed sources have told Dawn.
Five mentors — Waqar Younis (Lions), Misbah-ul-Haq (Wolves), Saqlain Mushtaq (Panthers), Shoaib Malik (Stallions) and Sarfraz Ahmad (Dolphins) — were hired on lucrative salaries of around Rs5million each were hired for the Champions Cup.
Besides them, other coaching staff were also hired on attractive salaries. However after just one year, the event which was introduced with so much excitement, has been shelved quietly.
Sources said that the costs of the Champions Cup were almost half of the domestic system.
Recently, the PCB formed a domestic cricket committee to give recommendations for the 2025-26 season. It recommended abolishing the Champions Cup, sources said.
However, a PCB spokesman said that so far no official announcement in this regard was available.
The domestic committee is also in favour to end last year’s experiment of allowing all 16 regional teams to play the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, with Lahore and Karachi allowed to field two outfits each.
Allowing all the regional teams to feature in the first-class event somehow lowered the quality of the competitions as many regions did not have enough cricketers to form their playing XI to compete with relatively stronger regional teams.
To replace that one-year project, the old system of dividing 16 regional teams into gold and silver, with eight regions in each category may be restored.
According to this formula, the top team of the silver category is to be promoted to the gold category for the next season while the bottom team of the gold category is to be demoted to the silver category.
According to a report, Shoaib resigned as mentor a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly, the all-rounder, despite having taken up the role of the mentor, was also competing in the National One-day Cup and HBL Pakistan Super League X.
If PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi follows his old policy of changing positions, the mentors may not be shown the door, and may get new roles.
Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2025
