First-Class cricket of any Test playing country is supposed to be its gateway to international cricket. In this era, first-class standards should be as close and competitive to international cricket as possible.

Pakistan’s first-class cricket, sadly, has a very poor standard as compared to other countries, hence the sub-standard lot of cricketers being produced.

As we all know, a professional team management plays a vital role in any team’s success. Ideally, the team management comprises a head coach, manager, trainer, cricket analyst, physio, bowling coach, etc. They are supposed to be qualified and trained staff who should act professionally in discharging their duties. They are, in fact, as important for a team’s success as the players.

It is a known fact that the departmental teams are much better equipped in all areas of the game as compared to regional first-class outfits; but their selection of team management is surprisingly strange. Even though the heads of most sports departments are senior players and I have no doubt about their knowledge of the game, cricket cannot be run professionally until and unless every aspect of the game is dealt with a professional approach.

Mostly, the organisations owning a sports department have this mindset that the ex-cricketers in their ranks should be assigned this job which will also justify their employment. But it is not a wise idea to be honest. Managing teams is purely a professional job on which the success of teams depend. In countries like Australia, England and South Africa, the importance and role of a competent, professional team management is well realized and the persons appointed for the job are highly paid for their services.

It is worthwhile to mention here that the Pakistan Customs team became the first to introduce a professional team management quite some time ago and have performed well consecutively for 12 seasons since, becoming the national champions in 2001 and twice playing the final of national one-day tournament.

Though all big teams have top class players in their fold, I believe the Customs team did well due to a professional team management at their disposal. Had it not been for that, the Customs could not have stayed long in first-class cricket because they were largely constrained due to lack of funds and absence of quality players.

Here I must point out that the PCB has done a lot of good work for regional firstclass teams by providing them with competent team managements (head coach, analyst, physio, trainer, assistant coach, etc) though it took about five years to train them professionally.

This is the only reason that planning and decision-making of the regional teams are better than the departmental teams. Furthermore, I have observed in the last couple of seasons that when combined first-class tournaments have been held, the regional team have defeated the departmental outfits many a times.

In my view they owe their success against the departments to some good and trained team management. A decade back when Pakistan’s first-class cricket had not adopted the modern professional cricket set-up, I hardly ever saw a regional or an association team defeating a departmental outfit.

It is pertinent to mention here and I have personally witnessed on many occasions that quite a few of the departmental teams are run like a club or a school team because their team management are not professionally trained or groomed. They suffer due to poor planning, awful decision-making, lack of game’s knowledge by officials manning them and ordinary selection of playing XIs which in turn lowers their performance and first-class cricket standard.

I am always a great supporter of departmental teams and have even convinced Imran Khan on the importance of departmental cricket in our first-class cricket setup despite his insistence for adopting the regional cricket concept.

Regional cricket is very good but not a part of our culture as it is in the hands of incompetent people, hence never delivering. It is imperative for the cricketers to enter club cricket environment and develop or own clubs to defeat vested interests for the sake of Pakistan cricket.

If departmental teams want to keep their supremacy in the first-class cricket arena, they have to revise their decision on selection of team management.

The writer is a former Test cricketer and Level III coach

jalal_coach@hotmail.com