Haroon, who was part of the task force set up to study the domestic structure when Imran was the Prime Minister, revealed how the former Pakistan captain had insisted on changing Pakistan’s first-class structure to just five-six teams.
But he rejected it outright,” Haroon said on a podcast on the ‘Smash It’ sports channel. Former chief selector and head coach Haroon Rasheed believes the downfall of Pakistan cricket started the moment former Prime Minister Imran Khan changed the domestic structure. “I was part of the cricket board and task force, and I remember when we met with Imran, we submitted a hybrid domestic cricket model.
Former chief selector and head coach Haroon Rasheed believes the downfall of Pakistan cricket started the moment former Prime Minister Imran Khan has changed the domestic structure.
The celebrated Pakistan captain, who won the 1992 World Cup for his country, had ordered a revamp of the domestic structure, reducing first-class cricket from 10-16 teams to just five teams on the lines of the Australian structure.
We were ordered to submit a revised domestic cricket plan and we did that, and it was a hybrid one,” Haroon said. “I remember we told Imran that the hybrid model was best for our cricket as, while we had reduced teams to eight, we had kept the participation of departmental teams in domestic cricket. “But Imran, in his short meeting with us, rejected the hybrid model and said he didn’t want eight but a maximum of five to six teams in the domestic structure. We told him it would be better to gradually switch to a new domestic structure, but eventually you have to listen to the Prime Minister,” Haroon recalled. He said the task force was then told by the then board chairman Ehsan Mani to do as Imran wanted. Haroon said India’s meteoric rise in world cricket was rooted in their domestic cricket.
“How much time do you think a Prime Minister can give? “People talk about the IPL but forget that in India they still have the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Hazara Trophy, and their state-level associations are independent and have their own regular domestic events at club level.
