In my last blog on Fawad Alam, I inadvertently stumbled upon an issue that had recently been bubbling under but one I wanted to avoid. From the reaction of the readers it is clear that a number of people are unhappy with the so-called regional bias being shown by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Karachi is one of the two largest centres for cricket in the country and people from all over Pakistan travel here in pursuit of their dreams of becoming international cricketers. Several first-class teams and cricket academies are located in the city, which not only makes it the cricketing hub of Sindh, but quite possibly Pakistan. It thus makes sense that a reasonable proportion of our national side should comprise players from the country’s biggest city.

While many Pakistani fans have been fuelling the fire of anti-Karachi bias being shown by the PCB, not many have been able to propose a viable solution to the problem except that of implementing a quota system – which may ease the grievances of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) to some extent . In a truly ‘representative’ team, players from all five provinces should make up the national side. But would this solution be desirable or even helpful for Pakistan cricket? Shouldn’t the best 11 players in Pakistan represent country?

This, in no way, is to undermine the role Punjab has played in providing legendary cricketers. When Inzamam crossed the 300-run mark we rejoiced, when Mohammad Yousuf broke Viv Richards' record we celebrated and when Imran Khan raised the world cup in 1992 we were proud. This was because these players were Pakistani, it didn’t matter where they were from or who they knew. They were the best at what they did and all of Pakistan was behind them. However, the recent charges of ethnic discrimination, provincialism or regional bias pose a threat to the progress of Pakistan cricket, which is something we can barely afford as cricket is the one of the few things that unite us as a nation.

I finally got down to writing this blog after a prolonged denial of this recent controversy as I did not want to believe that our cricket team was divided by ethnicity or that when a batsman scored a century where he was from and how he got there mattered to anyone. However, the recent frenzy with KCCA blaming the PCB chief and letters being written to President Zardari I was prompted to delve into this.

A string of poor performances by Pakistan in the on-going tour of England (scores of 80 and 72 in the last two Tests) made me wonder if Pakistan has stopped producing talented batsmen. Have the wells that produced Hanif Mohammad, Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq dried up?

Since first-class cricket is the highest level of the game at domestic level,  it would only make sense for top first-class performers to be promoted to Test cricket. The Quaid-e-Azam trophy – Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament – was last played in late 2009 and statistics from the tournament surprisingly reveal that none of the top performers were selected. In fact our batting line-up was chosen was from the lower middle cluster of the table of highest scorers (and highest batting averages) with the exception of Salman Butt and Zulqarnain Haider, as the following statistics show:

Shoaib Malik  (Matches: 2, Runs: 66, Average: 22.0) Umar Amin     (Matches: 10, Runs: 512, Average: 36.6) Azhar Ali        (Matches: 10, Runs: 445, Average: 29.7) Imran Farhat   (Matches: 3, Runs: 179 Average: 35.8)

And when I carried on to compile a list of players from Karachi thinking I thought I would be looking for a needle in a haystack if I looked at the top of the table. This, however, was not the case:

Fawad Alam          (Matches: 4, Runs: 418, Average: 83.6) Khalid Latif           (Matches: 8, Runs: 769, Average: 69.9) Khurram Manzoor (Matches: 6, Runs: 620, Average: 68.9) Asad Shafiq           (Matches: 11, Runs: 1104, Average: 64.9)

If these players were selected in the Pakistan side, would the team have fared better in England? While the answer remains elusive, the bar has been set s low by our current batsmen that common sense suggests we probably would have been better off with these discarded players in the side. It has been argued that Khurram Manzoor and Fawad Alam have been given a fair chance in the national side but i disagree. Khurram has a higher first-class average than Imran Farhat and his test average is only marginally lower, even though he has never played a game at home. As for Fawad…This begs the question “what criteria lead to the selection of the batsmen currently playing in the national squad?”

The aftermath of the horrid Australian tour in 2009/10 saw the PCB banning or penalising the core of the national team. A few months later, all is forgiven and forgotten but of the seven players punished four are already back in the side with only Younis Khan and Rana Naved still fighting for a place. Batting failures during the England series underlined the need for experienced players as the only experienced middle order batsman consistently failed (Shoaib Malik, averaging 17.6 in his last 12 Test innings). As a result Mohammad Yousuf was recalled, raising the question ‘why is Younis Khan being ignored ?’ given his impressive Test record (Averaging 67.4 in the last six Tests) and the fact that he has been playing in England (with Surrey) while Yousuf has been enjoying the retired life. Zaheer Abbas even questioned whether the PCB had “different set of rules for (the) two players.”

Another player most Pakistan fans wonder about is Asim Kamal. Yes he should have been in current line up but choosing him now out of obscurity would not be the wisest decision given his age and a need for bringing young talent in the team. One can still question his omission from the team in 2005 despite his solid technique and impeccable temperament.

One argument in this debate of regional bias is that Punjab makes up of nearly 60 per cent of the country’s population but I do not think this argument holds any weight. Firstly because throughout our cricketing history players from Karachi have made up for most of the batting line up while the bowlers came from other provinces. In fact, during the late 70’s and early 80’s Karachi-based players comprised the entire batting line-ups.

Karachi-based first-class teams have won first-class championships 19 times since the early '50s. This shows that Karachi-based teams have always dominated domestically – a fact that has been reflected in the national team.

Larger countries like Australia do not face such problems. India still have minor issues with regionalism, but in their defence they are the number one Test side in the world and have to deal with players from 28 states and seven union territories. Why can most cricket boards be objective and selectors autonomous but not ours?

Bilal Hayat is a sports intern at Dawn.com.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.