LAHORE: With just ten days remaining before the start of the Champions Cup, Pakistan’s premier one-day domestic cricket tournament, several crucial decisions regarding the event are still pending.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has yet to finalize key aspects such as team selections, match schedules, coaching staff, mentors, and match officials for the September 1-29 tournament. The delay in these announcements is raising concerns about the management of the PCB under Mohsin Naqvi’s leadership.
The PCB plans to appoint mentors for each of the five teams and a 10-member coaching staff. The application deadline for hiring mentors is August 22, indicating a tight timeline for completing these tasks.
Additionally, the schedule of matches, appointment of umpires, referees, and scorers, and team selections remain unresolved. There is also uncertainty about how the teams will be selected based on last season’s performance.
The Champions Cup was initially highlighted as a major event by PCB officials, including Mohsin Naqvi and cricket adviser Waqar Younis, during its announcement in Lahore. However, progress on implementing the plans appears to be lagging.
A central contract for the 150 players selected for the Champions Cup is still pending, with category ‘A’ players set to receive Rs550,000 and category ‘B’ players Rs400,000.
Sources suggest that the announcement of umpires for the domestic season is also delayed, potentially due to pending promotions and a possible increase in salaries for the elite and supplementary panel umpires.
In positive news, the PCB has issued monthly contracts worth Rs50,000 to the top 15 domestic run-scorers for the first time.
