Pakistan domestic cricket undergoes massive revamp
In a bid to improve the quality of its feeder level, the Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to go in for a major overhaul of its domestic cricket structure, with the standout decision being the reduction of the number of teams from 16 to 6, with all the banks and departments going out of the system and being replaced by six provinces: Sindh (Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkan), Southern Punjab (Multan and Bahawalpur), Central Punjab (Lahore, Sialkot and Faisalabad), Balochistan (Dera Murad Jamali and Quetta), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Peshawar, FATA and Abbottabad) and Northern areas (Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Azad-Jammu Kashmir). These six provincial teams will now also have their Second XIs, competing in a different set of competitions. For now, due to a limited pool of women cricketers (only around 45 in the country), these associations will not be responsible for running women’s cricket. Wasim Khan, PCB’s chief executive, said, “If you see countries like India, Australia, and England, the ownership lied with different regions. That was not the case with Pakistan so far, where PCB handled everything. Now, it’s time to give the onus back to the respective regions to develop cricket in their regions. These…