LAHORE: Pakistan’s legendary ex-cricket captain Mushtaq Mohammad on Wednesday urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to resume the departmental cricket as six team’s formula for a country having a huge population of 220 million is not a workable system for giving a fair chance to all the deserving cricketers to show their mettle.

Speaking in a ‘meet the press’ programme organised by Sports Journalist Association of Lahore (SJAL) here, Mushtaq, who played in 57 Tests and 10 One-day Internationals spanning from 1959 to 1979 said: “As the population of Australia and New Zealand is considerably low, a domestic structure comprising six or seven teams is effective, but in Pakistan six teams in a population of 220 million cannot do justice to all budding players.

“Our country is a poor one and the cricketers need to earn money and for that reason departmental cricket was the best platform to produce cricketers besides earning their livelihood,” argued Mushtaq. “So the PCB should resume the Patron’s Trophy for the departments and retaining Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for the regional/provincial teams to keep the window open for maximum number of talented players,” he said.

Mushtaq, who scored 3,643 runs at an average of 39.17 in Test cricket besides taking 79 wickets at 29.22, said the PCB should restore departmental cricket in any shape as it is essential for the promotion of cricket in Pakistan.

“The PCB had disaffiliated almost 32 departmental cricket teams, leaving thousands of cricketers jobless. It also demolished 16 regional cricket teams to play with six provincial teams in the first-class cricket, depriving hundreds of the cricketers of playing first-class cricket,” lamented Mushtaq.

To a question Mushtaq said Imran Khan as patron-in-chief of the PCB has brought Ihsan Mani and it is now his job to perform well in his post.

Commenting on the dual jobs handed to Misbah-ul-Haq, Mushtaq said PCB must have taken the decision after much thought and calculation, so he must be given appropriate time to prove the decision as right. Similarly he also said Babar Azam was a talented cricketer and as captain he should also be given proper time to groom himself as skipper.

To a question, Mushtaq said to this day he could not understand why he was removed as captain of the Pakistan team way back in 1979 when his team was showing great performance against top ranked teams. “Despite the fact that under my captaincy Pakistan performed well on the challenging tours of New Zealand, Australia and West Indies, I was suddenly removed at the pretext to give a chance to upcoming player Talat Mirza on the next tour of India,” recalled Mushtaq. “It was unfair to young Talat Mirza too as after just seven days, he was called back from the tour of India.”

It may be mentioned here that Mushtaq was replaced by Asif Iqbal as skipper for that tour of India in 1979.

Mushtaq also paid rich tributes to fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz and called him the best medium fast bowler in the world. “On many occasions Sarfraz with his seam bowling turned the matches Pakistan’s way and no doubt he was one of the best medium-pacers the world ever saw,” said Mushtaq.

Speaking on the suspension of cricket ties between Pakistan and India, Mushtaq said cricketers of both the countries wanted to play against each other, but unfortunately at government level there were hurdles, which he insisted should be removed urgently.

He observed that commercialisation in cricket has made the game exciting but very different from his playing days. “In my playing days, the pitches, grounds and umpiring were not at their best but now with the induction of high-tech technology the cricketers are satisfied over the decisions of umpires.”

He emphasised that in Pakistan the standard of the pitches and grounds need to be improved and hailed return of international cricket to Pakistan and said it was a good sign for which credit should be given to the PCB.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2020