In our latest opinion piece, we discuss whether the early exit of the Pakistan T20 champions is the result of deep-rooted problems with the standard of domestic cricket

by Shayan Siddiqui (22nd September 2013)

After all the visa issues, Faisalabad Wolves’ stay in India didn’t last long. They lost their first two group matches of the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) qualifying stage before earning a consolation win over Kandurata Maroons thanks to a special innings from Misbah-Ul-Haq after the other batsmen had failed yet again. Whilst winning and losing is part of the game, it was startling to see the difference in quality between the Pakistani domestic cricketers and those from the other countries. For a country renowned for its immense ability to produce talented cricketers, it has to be a concern for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that the country’s T20 Champions struggled so much in India, particularly in a format so suited to young Pakistani cricketers.

The tour of Zimbabwe demonstrated that the batting is still heavily reliant on the experienced duo of Younis Khan and Misbah, with the other batsmen once again struggling in non-subcontinent conditions despite being up against a fairly mediocre Zimbabwean attack. Whilst discussions about team selection and meritocracy inevitably come to the fore, the performance of the Wolves at the CLT20 has left fears that the standard of domestic cricket in Pakistan is not up to scratch and the players coming through will struggle to make the step up to international cricket.

PakPassion recently interviewed Ashar Zaidi, the 32-year-old all-rounder who has started playing for Sussex. Ashar spent many years playing first-class cricket in Pakistan, and when he was asked why Pakistani batsmen struggle so much in alien conditions, he commented that it was all about their mindset. He named a couple of prominent international batsmen who would ask for very flat tracks to be prepared for domestic first-class games, rather than challenging themselves in tougher conditions. Similar wickets are prepared in the nets and bowlers are asked to avoid bowling too short. It clearly suggests that there is a great deal of short-term thinking both on the part of the players and the PCB. Surely some sort of intervention is required to force batsmen to play in unfamiliar conditions. Fronting up to the problems is the first step towards finding a solution.

Wasim Akram made this comment about the standard of domestic cricket when he was playing, "Every domestic team had at least 4 or 5 cricketers who were of international quality and some had even more. Every team had 2 or 3 fast bowlers who could bowl around the 90mph mark." It’s plainly obvious the the current climate of domestic cricket in Pakistan is nothing like what it used to be, 90mph bowlers are rare and you’d struggle to find more than one or two international quality players in any side.

Many have argued, and will continue to argue, that the quality players are there but the team management and selections are such that they are not given the opportunity. From what we have seen of the Faisalabad Wolves at the CLT20, it may just be a false hope that all will be fine once the correct selections are made. Pakistan fans might have to settle for an extended period of struggle at the international level.

Discuss!