LAHORE, April 18: Officials of the countrywide cricket associations have urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to increase the participation of regional teams in the proposed domestic structure for the next cricket season 2003-4.

At a joint meeting on Friday at Gadaffi Stadium, the officials from Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Quetta cricket associations tabled useful suggestions for the proposed changed structure put up by the PCB Review Committee which was set up in the wake of Pakistan’s poor performance in the World Cup.

The meeting also attended by former Test and international cricketers and PCB officials including Chishty Mujahid, Ramiz Raja, Zakir Khan and members of the review committee, Col Naushad Ali, Sultan Rana and Aaqib Javed noted down the suggestions put forward by the participants for inclusion in their recommendations to PCB.

But at the same when the officials of the cricket associations demanded increase in the regional teams from eight to 12 in domestic tournament, they also underlined the importance of departmental teams for their contribution in the overall promotion of the game and welfare of the players.

In the proposed structure 72 percent cricket revolves around regions and 28 percent around departments.

The review committee put special emphasis on quality cricket not on quantity and thus has proposed for squeezing the number of domestic cricket matches.

“One of the proposed change is to cut down number of first-class cricketers appearing in the domestic season from 556 to 225 to produce quality players and to make the events competitive,” said a PCB spokesman of the PCB after the meeting.

He said the main concern is to bring suitable changes in the structure to make it fully effective and result oriented. “The role of the departments in the domestic cricket cannot be overlooked and can not be minimised and efforts would be made to retain them in the same role.”.

The meeting also discussed junior cricket ranging from under-15 to 19 to produce nursery on solid lines to strengthen the base of the game.

The meeting thoroughly analysed the suggestions and the review committee would include them in its recommendations in the changed structure.

“After preparing a document on the basis of the suggestion/views of the participants, the review committee would send it to the concerned associations for getting their feed back before giving their final recommendations to the PCB,” the spokesman said.

“After a through review a changed structure would be introduced in the coming season,” he added.—APP