Domestic cricket lacks in quality: PCB chief

KARACHI: PCB chief Shaharyar M. Khan has explicitly acknowledged that the standard of domestic cricket in the country seriously lacks in quality."Our domestic game is not developing high-quality players.

A massive quantity of first-class games featuring too many cricketers are held across the country every season, a scenario which has negatively affected the quality of players our system has been producing," the PCB chairman said while talking to reporters here at the National Stadium on Friday.

"To address this problem, we would look to reduce the number of competing teams after raising this issue in the Board of Governors meeting later this month," he said, adding that measures to develop grass-roots cricket, school cricket and women's cricket would also come under discussion. Commenting on Karachi, a major centre, Shaharyar vowed to bring significant cricketing improvement in the mega city.

"We have to lift the game here in Karachi and we are taking a number of steps in this regard. Construction of the regional academy here [at the National Stadium] is in progress, and will be completed in within two months.

Then we are constructing an extra first-class ground here. "As regards international cricket, we'll include Karachi as a host city again. Dawn