Bloopers in Pakistan’s National Twenty20

November 28, 2017 | By

How much attention does Pakistan Cricket Board pay to its domestic cricket was evident from the various bloopers committed in domestic cricket.

The ill-planned and ill-fated National Twenty20 is one blatant example. Out of nowhere the domestic department planned the Twenty20 tournament. What was the need of the tournament, nobody knew but if PCB sources are to be believed they had a sponsor who was inclined to do the event as early as possible.

The ill-planned and ill-fated National Twenty20 is one blatant example. Out of nowhere the domestic department planned the Twenty20 tournament. What was the need of the tournament, nobody knew but if PCB sources are to be believed they had a sponsor who was inclined to do the event as early as possible.

Luckily for the PCB the global Twenty20 league was postponed where some nine Pakistan players had signed. But the national event clashed with the Bangladesh Premier League forcing skipper Sarfraz Ahmed to forgo his 50,000 dollars contract with Khulna Titans.

PCB had made it mandatory for players to feature in the first week of matches but Titans did not wait for the Pakistani skipper and hired another wicket keeper in Nicholas Pooran.

Sarfraz’s agent did try to get him another contract but it did not work. So an ill-planned Twenty20 deprived Sarfraz of some invaluable money. PCB should have to compensate him as its every player’s right to earn money.

FATA would have qualified even if they had reached the target in 16.5 overs! Karachi Whites also had objections over FATA’s coach Ayaz Akbar Yousufzui who is an employee of GEO News. How can a journalist act as coach of a region and getting hefty salary?

The National Twenty20 continued to be on the chopping block. First PCB continued to change its schedule – first because of the expected T20 series against the West Indies. It was finally fixed for November 11 in Faisalabad. Ignorant of the weather the PCB hierarchy had panicked when they found matches could not be played in the industrial city due to heavy smog.

Finally, the event was shifted to Rawalpindi but no promotion was done as even weekends could not attract the crowd.

At an important juncture of the tournament with the final team to be decided for the semi-final, a controversy erupted. Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Karachi Whites were in contention for the last pre-final berth.

In case of FATA’s win in their last group match against Faisalabad, net run rate would have to decide the last place. After Faisalabad set a target of 158 for their opponents, the match referee Aziz-ur-Rehman briefed teams that if FATA achieved the target in 16.3 overs they would oust Karachi team from the semi-finals. FATA only reached the target in 16.4 overs, so as briefed by the referee and scorers, the national television broadcast that Karachi Whites had qualified for the semis.

It was only after correct net run rate were calculated that FATA were announced to have qualified for the penultimate stage. It irked Karachi Whites officials no end as they ran pillar to post to get the clarification but no one listened to their grievances.

Top statisticians said it was match referee’s mistake as it’s not easy to calculate net run-rate without proper understanding of the system. FATA would have qualified even if they had reached the target in 16.5 overs! Karachi Whites also had objections over FATA’s coach Ayaz Akbar Yousufzui who is an employee of GEO News. How can a journalist act as coach of a region and getting hefty salary?

As always, PCB did nothing to clarify the situation.

Cricket Wallah

Cricket Wallah has written numerous articles published at ScoreLine.org.

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