Imran Khan, the 1992 World Cup-winning captain and former Pakistan Prime Minister, has been blamed for the sport’s downfall in the country. Haroon Rasheed, the former chief selector and head coach, said that players’ standards declined as soon as Imran gave the order to change the domestic cricket structure. The last few years have been abysmal for Pakistan, with the Green Shirts failing to make the semis of the last four ICC events, including the ODI and T20I World Cups.
Recently, the Mohsin Naqvi-led Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) also sent back seven players from the UK after the disastrous defeats in the first two Tests against England. A lot has been said about the possible reasons for the chaos in Pakistan cricket, but Haroon believes Imran was wrong to change the first-class structure.
It is worth noting that Haroon was a part of the task force set up to study the domestic structure during Imran’s tenure as the Prime Minister. The 1992 World Cup-winner became the Prime Minister of Pakistan after his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, won the general elections in 2018.
After Imran came to power, he ordered a revamp of the domestic structure, reducing the number of first-class cricket teams from 10-16 to just six, taking a cue from the Australian 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. But he rejected it outright,” Haroon said on a podcast on the ‘Smash It’ sports channel.
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Imran Khan was voted out of power in 2022 and is currently in Adiala jail facing various charges related to his term.
“How much time do you think a Prime Minister can give? We were ordered to submit a revised domestic cricket plan, and we did that, and it was a hybrid one,” Haroon said.
Speaking of Haroon, he worked at the PCB until 2020 in various positions, including chief selector, selector, head coach, head of high performance and development, and manager.
“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,” said Haroon.
“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. He might have meant well, but it didn’t work out for Pakistan cricket,” he added.
Haroon concluded his remarks by saying that India emerged as a true force in international cricket because it had its house in order in domestic cricket.
“People talk about the IPL but forget that in India they still have the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Hazare trophy and their state-level associations are independent and have their own regular domestic events at club level,” said Haroon.
“In Pakistan, now all powers are with the PCB, which needs to decentralise power and give more independence to regional associations and departments as was the case in the past,” he added.
