Aamir Sohail worried for Pakistan's domestic cricket

Raising concerns about Pakistan's domestic cricket, former Test opener Aamer Sohail has said that it is in a state of disarray.

"The manner in which Pakistan domestic cricket is currently organised reeks of inefficiency and disorganisation," the Pakpassion.net quoted Sohail, as saying.

The country also formed Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2015 and Sohail believes the league has further worsened the shape of the domestic cricket.

Calling domestic cricket a nursery for growing good cricketers, Sohail said, "The very simple fact of the matter is that unless you concentrate on making the domestic structure better, your cricket and cricketers will never progress."

Recently there was also news about the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan's domestic first-class cricket championship, being scrapped and the rumour had disheartened the former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selector.

Reacting on it, he said, "I pray that it never happens, as this shows that some people have absolutely no idea or simply don't care about Pakistan cricket."

Sohail batted for proper scheduling of domestic tournaments in order to make it easy for the players to manage committing to events.

He said the ad-hoc scheduling of the domestic tournaments depict the ineptitude of the administration.

"What I would have liked to see is that the PCB planning their domestic schedules one year in advance. But that is not the case now and the players end up committing to other leagues in the absence of any concrete information about Pakistan's domestic cricket schedule for the next season," he quipped.

Comparing Pakistan cricket to that of India, Sohail said that the country is producing poor international cricketers due to low quality domestic pitches, which is not the case in India.

"Poor batsmen are a by-product of low quality domestic pitches," he said

He added, "The biggest tragedy afflicting our cricket at the moment is that our board is not spending money on aspects of our domestic game where it is needed most."

Recalling the earlier days, Sohail said the country has not produced any quality batsman for a long time.

"In my view, the few decent batsmen apart from the likes of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq that Pakistan has produced in recent times are Asim Kamal, Salman Butt and more recently, Asad Shafiq," he said.

Expressing deep concerns over the issue, Sohail concluded that Pakistan's batting is indeed in a state of crisis.

-ANI