LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday introduced a new set of tournaments featuring five “Champion” teams, which would make up the top level of a revamped domestic structure.

The sides, named Dolp­hins, Panthers, Stallion, Wolves and Lions, will play each other in first-class, 50-over and Twenty20 events, with the Champions One-day Cup — the 50-over tournament — kicking off this year’s domestic season from September 1.

The Champions T20 Cup will be held in December-January, while the Cham­pions First-class Cup, sche­duled to run across the sum­mer next year, will mark the end of the season, which will also feature tour­naments for the regio­nal and departmental sides.

The Champions tournaments will see the five participating sides lock horns against each other twice in each of the three formats, and will be a part of a season which will feature 261 matches in total — counting in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (first-class tournament featuring the 18 regional teams), the President’s Trophy (first-class tournament featuring nine departmental teams), the President’s Cup (50-over tournament featuring nine departmental teams), the National T20 Cup (featuring 18 regional teams) and the HBL Pakistan Super League.

The PCB, in its press release following their ann­o­uncement, said the new competitions were meant to “bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket, provide a tougher, more competitive and high-pressure cricket playing environment, and create better and enhanced earning opportunities for its future stars”.

Accordingly, the enhan­ced domestic contracts, which will be offered to the 150 Champions cricketers — the country’s highest-performing domestic players from the past three years and centrally contracted players — promise Rs550,000 per month to 40 Category 1 players, Rs400,000 per month to 50 Category 2 players and Rs250,000 per month to 60 Category 3 players.

In addition to the mo­nthly retainers, the PCB said, the match fees has been raised to Rs200,000 for red-ball cricket, Rs125,000 for 50-over matches and Rs100,000 for T20 matches.

Each of the Champions side will have a former Pakistan superstar as “a mentor and potentially as an owner”, said the board in its statement. And each will be allocated a dedicated Regional High Perf­ormance Centre in Faisa­labad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Sialkot.

CONSTITUTIONAL COVER

The upcoming domestic season will be the first under Mohsin Naqvi’s reign as the PCB chairman. However, he is not the first chief of the board to introduce a revamped domestic structure. In 2019, a six-team provincial cricket association team system was brought in at the expense of departments and regions. The latter system, however, returned in 2023, to be eventually streamlined by Mohsin.

There are fears that whoever replaces the incumbent PCB chief after his three-year tenure may go ahead and bring yet another change to the domestic structure, but Mohsin said he will ensure a constitutional cover is provided to his latest step.

“An amendment in the PCB constitution will be made so that no one can change the new domestic structure easily in future,” he said during a press conference here on Monday, flanked by his advisor on cricket affairs and former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis.

The mentors/owners of the teams will form a board under Waqar — who has been handed the responsibility by the board’s chief to effectively run sporting side of things.

Waqar, who said he “hoped” the new system works, admitted Pakistan cricket was going through challenging times, with the national men’s sides disastrous exit from the T20 World Cup in June exposing the administrative and structural loopholes in the country’s cricketing structure.

“Until our product doesn’t take the right track and corrects the method of playing cricket, we cannot achieve the desired results,” he said. “Stadiums are being renovated and it is good but until our cricket is on the right track nothing can be changed.”

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2024