PakPassion.net recently caught up with the main man behind the PCCL, Rashid Latif who spoke of the successful staging of the event, its purpose and the quality of cricket on display as well as his unwavering determination and aim to continue to serve Pakistan cricket.

By Nimra Ishtiaq (6th June, 2012)

In February 2010, former Pakistan captain and wicket-keeper Rashid Latif joined hands with the city government of the metropolitan city of Karachi to launch the Karachi Champions League (KCL), a Twenty20 league which might have been the most lucrative club cricket tournament to have been held in the country till then, offering prize money of PKR 10 million ($100,000). The event that featured the leading club teams from Karachi proved to be a huge success with people turning up in good numbers to support the clubs at each of the five grounds where the matches were played.

Two years and a few months later, the ever so determined Rashid Latif came up with the second edition of the tournament, the Pakistan Champions Cricket League (PCCL) – this time only bigger and better with 7 foreign teams competing against 16 teams from Karachi and 17 teams from the rest of Pakistan. The event concluded on June 2, 2012 in front of a jam-packed Rashid Latif Cricket Academy, Korangi Ground in Karachi.

PakPassion.net recently caught up with the main man behind the event, Rashid Latif who spoke of the successful staging of PCCL, the purpose behind the event and the quality of cricket on display as well as his unwavering determination and aim to continue to serve Pakistan cricket.

Speaking of the amount of interest the PCCL generated among the Karachiites, Latif stated “There was an unbelievable turnout in the final. More than 20,000 people were inside the stadium while a huge number of people were gathered outside the stadium hoping to get in. It was fantastic that a club cricket match was played in a jam-packed stadium!”

The two-week long PCCL concluded with all-rounder Fawad Alam lifting the winner's trophy after Al-Noor Gymkhana beat Khyber Green FATA by 7 wickets in the final on Saturday. While Al-Noor Gymkhana lifted the winner's trophy as well as the handsome prize money, Khyber Green FATA – the team of eleven Afridis won the hearts.

When asked to name the outstanding performers, Latif opted to mention the relatively unknown names that caught his eye during the two-week long event. He stated “The lesser known players who performed well include Peshawar’s spinner Tariq Khan, Dawood Sports’ Ammar Hasan, Malir Gymkhana’s Zohaib Shera and Haris Ali Khan, and FATA’s Saeed Afridi. It was really good to see Saeed Afridi - a player from FATA - outperform all others and win the Best Batsman of the Tournament award.”

Commenting on the quality of cricket on display, Latif forthrightly stated “I wouldn’t term it a very high class tournament in terms of the quality of cricket. I’d say it was quite good and the crowd certainly loved it.”

“Keeping in mind that it was a club-level tournament, I think the standard of cricket was pretty good. But of course, it cannot be compared with First Class cricket. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s current international players were unavailable for this event because of the training camp for the Sri Lankan tour preparations while others were in England, playing league cricket. So the participation of international stars was not as good as it had been in the previous tournament. Nonetheless, quite a few international players like Fawad Alam, Tanvir Ahmed, Awais Zia, Junaid Zia and Wahab Riaz did participate in the tournament.”

When asked about his future plans for the tournament, Latif said “We make a lot of plans but at the end of the day, you have to take the available resources into account, and then implement the best possible plan.”

Further highlighting some of the major problems faced in the organization of the event, Latif stated “The organising committee spent a total of approximately PKR 30 Million ($300,000) to make this event possible. The accommodation of 7 foreign teams in 60-plus rooms at the Pearl Continental Hotel, their food, transportation – everything was our responsibility.”

Latif further added “In Pakistan, it’s a culture to sponsor big international stars only. All the large, multinational organisations wish to sponsor the international team only. But we will continue to organise such events one after the other in order to make them realise that club cricket is also an important chapter of Pakistan cricket and to compel them to sponsor such events.”

43 year old Rashid Latif who runs a network of cricket academies has a proven track record of taking the initiative to promote the great game of cricket. Whilst he seemed satisfied with the successful staging of the PCCL, there are bigger aims that he wishes to fulfil as he stated “If Pakistan’s international stars are available to play and if more and more foreign clubs agree to participate (which is a possibility), then this club tournament can actually turn into a huge event.”

“Our fundamental aim is to promote the cricketers, especially the young talent – and we will continue to strive for that, notwithstanding the limited resources at our disposal.”

Latif continued “Today, we’ve done it in Karachi. Tomorrow, we might do it in Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot or Multan. If we are able to continue holding such events, I think it will greatly improve our cricket at the grass-root level.”

The Karachi-born wicket-keeper, in association with the local government, has been able to hold two big events in three years without much support from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)– something that he feels he would need in his quest to achieve his aim. Expressing his desire to work with the PCB instead of emerging as a parallel body, Latif said “We need support, particularly from the PCB. We want the PCB to stand by our side - we do not want to stand against them as a parallel body. We want to help Pakistan cricket – we want maximum number of children to get involved in cricket.”

Latif added “We want to get our younger generation to get involved in cricket and other sports instead of crime and other destructive habits. But for that, we need the Pakistan Cricket Board’s support. We do not ask them to provide us with funds or cricket grounds – Alhamdulillah we have enough grounds.”

“If the PCB stands by our side, the time is not too far distant when international cricket will be played in Pakistan. We have complete faith in our talent and passion to turn this into a reality. We have done big things on a smaller level, I’m confident we can do bigger things on the higher level” concluded Latif.