AGL 37.84 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-0.42%)
AIRLINK 217.49 Increased By ▲ 3.58 (1.67%)
BOP 9.49 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.74%)
CNERGY 6.61 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (5.09%)
DCL 8.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.8%)
DFML 43.09 Increased By ▲ 0.88 (2.08%)
DGKC 95.10 Increased By ▲ 0.98 (1.04%)
FCCL 35.55 Increased By ▲ 0.36 (1.02%)
FFBL 88.94 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFL 17.73 Increased By ▲ 1.34 (8.18%)
HUBC 127.66 Increased By ▲ 0.76 (0.6%)
HUMNL 13.85 Increased By ▲ 0.48 (3.59%)
KEL 5.36 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.94%)
KOSM 6.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.58%)
MLCF 43.63 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (1.51%)
NBP 59.40 Increased By ▲ 0.55 (0.93%)
OGDC 222.98 Increased By ▲ 3.56 (1.62%)
PAEL 39.61 Increased By ▲ 0.45 (1.15%)
PIBTL 8.25 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.86%)
PPL 195.50 Increased By ▲ 3.84 (2%)
PRL 38.90 Increased By ▲ 0.98 (2.58%)
PTC 27.68 Increased By ▲ 1.34 (5.09%)
SEARL 104.75 Increased By ▲ 0.75 (0.72%)
TELE 8.61 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (2.62%)
TOMCL 35.50 Increased By ▲ 0.75 (2.16%)
TPLP 13.19 Increased By ▲ 0.31 (2.41%)
TREET 25.40 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.24%)
TRG 72.17 Increased By ▲ 1.72 (2.44%)
UNITY 33.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-0.57%)
WTL 1.72 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 11,993 Increased By 99.2 (0.83%)
BR30 37,338 Increased By 483.4 (1.31%)
KSE100 111,637 Increased By 1213.4 (1.1%)
KSE30 35,162 Increased By 384.3 (1.11%)

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB’s) efforts for the democratisation of the game continued in the 2021-22 season, as it provided guidance and assistance to the six Cricket Associations for the growth and promotion of cricket at the grassroots level.

The efforts reaped great benefits for club cricketers with as many as 3,822 club sides across the country playing 7,009 matches. The six cricket associations (CAs) conducted cricket leagues in their respective jurisdictions in the five-month period between October 2021 and February 2022, providing a pathway for the aspiring cricketers to graduate to the apex domestic level and also helping in the unearthing of cricket talent in both urban and rural centers.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, whose talent across all rungs continues to dominate the domestic scene, saw 844 clubs play 1,530 matches from 13th November 2021 to 20th January 2022. Central Punjab and Sindh had the next best number of club participation with 788 and 670 sides playing 1,482 and 1,172 matches, respectively.

In Southern Punjab, 517 clubs played 1,100 matches, while 512 clubs in Balochistan and 491 in Northern featured in 700 and 1,025 games, respectively. The club cricket leagues in the Balochistan, Central Punjab, Northern, Sindh and Southern Punjab began on 20th October 2021 and finished early this year.

Nadeem Khan, Director – High Performance said: “Club cricket acts as a feeder for domestic cricket and it was vital that we created an atmosphere in which our six Cricket Associations were able to maximize cricket at grassroots. I want to congratulate the Cricket Associations, who have delivered these matches and have more such activities planned that are in line with the PCB has a vision of helping grassroots cricket grow and flourish.

The PCB aims to continue to work closely with the six Cricket Associations so that we can collectively provide maximum playing opportunities to the budding cricketers in an effort to help them achieve their career objectives”.

In the coming months, the PCB will run an independent scrutiny process to further boost the development of the game at the club level. Separately, extensive work continued to attract schoolchildren towards cricket, as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Central Punjab and Southern Punjab organised school cricket leagues, a PCB spokesman, said. Three-hundred school teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa played 565 matches from 7th October to 8th November last year. Southern Punjab’s school league saw 184 schools compete in 295 matches from 15 November 2021 till 5 January 2022, while 162 schools in Central Punjab have played 458 matches to date with the two-day league presently ongoing.

Earlier in the month, Dar-e-Arqam Lahore won the Central Punjab Weekend School Championship 2021-22 on the basis of first innings lead in a draw against Divisional Public School Faisalabad at Pakistan’s home of cricket, the Gaddafi Stadium.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

Comments

Comments are closed.