Winds of change

When the Pakistan Cricket Board announced, with much gusto last year, that regional cricket was indeed the antidote to the many ills of Pakistan cricket, it was greeted with as much enthusiasm as cynicism. The question of whether Pakistan should do away with departments and organisations and replace them with regional teams divides as many people as does Murali's action or Shoaib's commitment.

There are those, such as Rashid Latif and Iqbal Qasim, who argue that departments are essential. They compellingly argue that the continued involvement of departments provides financial security and stability to a player in a country where it is notoriously difficult to attain either - particularly as most cricketers here have little or no educational qualifications. It is something that regional cricket has never offered.

Others, such as Imran Khan and Aaqib Javed, argue that the PCB is not an employment agency and that for the game to thrive in this country, it is essential to play it on regional lines. This, they believe, will breed regional academies where talent will be spotted and brought into the national team. And their time may have come.

The PCB's change last year signaled a tilt to this school of thought. Rameez Raja, chief executive officer of the PCB, and a keen advocate of the regional system said then that there was a shift in emphasis away from the departments and onto regional associations. Two tournaments were devised - the Patrons Trophy for departments and the Quaid-e-Azam for regions.

This wasn't revolutionary, as leading cricket historian Abid Ali Kazi, among others, pointed out. But the difference this time is the realisation that without incorporating the financial infrastructure of the departmental game into the regional one, the shift is pointless.

"The departmental game was thriving ten years ago, financially and structurally, and we want to take the best of that professionalism and put it into the regional game," says Raja. Indeed, even for people like Rashid Latif and Javed Miandad, the problem has never been with the idea of regional cricket - it has been with the financial uncertainty of it.

Until this year, as Raja pointed out while speaking to Wisden Cricinfo, there was no professional structure in the regional set-up. "Players were paid a daily allowance of Rs.1000 across the board and nothing else, no salary or contract." Ten years ago, it was as little as Rs.100-200.

This season, however, may finally herald the arrival of a feasible system. The PCB announced last week that every player who had participated in the two-month long Quaid-e-Azam trophy was paid a flat amount of Rs.60,000. In contrast, in the Patrons Trophy, employers pay their players approximately Rs.10,000 a month. "This season's regional tournament was a huge success. The players were paid decent amounts. We had coaches installed and they were paid monthly salaries," says an understandably pleased Raja.

Someone as commercially aware as Raja, however, is also aware that the recent lucrative TV rights contract with Ten Sports and the financial windfall that was the India series have contributed to injecting money into regional cricket. The PCB plans to offer regional players six-month contracts for next season, but will there be such a bounty next year? The sustainability of this plan is still open to question.

"Two years down the line, I don't know. It is a long process, bringing professionalism and more money into the game. But we need to kickstart it now," argues Raja. And there is some light on the horizon. A couple of local TV networks have expressed a strong interest in televising the Quaid trophy, possibly as early as next season.

"Once we have a product out on TV with the best players participating, we can market it and attract sponsors," he said. "I am pretty confident that will happen next season." In addition, detailed plans to franchise each region and run it as a professional organisation have been drafted. If sponsors can be found, not only will the financial burden on the PCB be eased, professionalism will become sustainable.

The PCB has also begun the process of hiring Regional Development Officers, who will be responsible for promoting the game in the nine regions (Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Islamabad/Pindi, Hyderabad and Peshawar). "They will nurture and develop the game from school level onto club, then district all the way to the top. We want them to find and train coaches, players and umpires," says Raja.

There is still a lot of work to be done if the much-desired system of regional cricket can become successful in Pakistan. Pessimism surrounding the plans remains. Some have questioned - with justification given the PCB's track record - whether the PCB will be able to implement its ambitious plan.

But then, there was similar scepticism when the roadmap was laid down last season. Nobody imagined then that players would be paid so much for the Quaid trophy. Thanks to the Indian series, at least the PCB has defied some of the cynics by embarking on a noble path. Whether or not they last the course on is still too early to say, but if there is additional TV revenue next season, then the days of Imran Khan bemoaning the state of the domestic game may be gone forever.