Former Pakistan chief selector Haroon Rasheed blamed Imran Khan’s decision to reduce domestic teams for Pakistan’s decline, contrasting the country’s limited structure with India’s deeper cricketing talent pipeline.
Pakistan cricket is in freefall, and it’s been a quick one. Till late 1990s and early 2000s, Pakistan were one of the top teams in the world, but they’ve lost their spark in the last decade or two. One of the main reasons why Pakistan has struggled so badly is the lack of quality players they’ve produced over the years. Now compare that to neighbours India, which can easily produce multiple teams for every format and each team can beat the best sides in the world. So what’s exactly wrong with Pakistan?
Haroon Rasheed, the former chief selector and head coach, feels the issue lies in the broken domestic structure. Haroon, who was a part of the task force set up to study the domestic structure during Imran Khan’s tenure as the Prime Minister, pinned the blame for the steep decline in recent times on the 1992 World Cup-winning captain, who reduced the number of domestic teams from 10-16 to just six in 2022. Haroon said that Imran might have meant well for the team, but the decision backfired and is one of the main reasons why Pakistan cricket is struggling.
“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.
“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.
“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.