About 20 years ago, on the 1988/89 Pakistan tour of Australia I was lucky enough to see Imran Khan speak at a sportsman's night.
Among many things, Imran spole that night of being charged with re-structuring the format of Pakistani domestic cricket.
At the time - and this was well before Australia's dominance, he spoke of the quality of the first class structure in Australia, of how this was the blueprint for a quality domestic first class competition. The advantages a small number of teams, with true loyalities to local districts/states/regions, and playing regularly against the nations best, would improve the quality and depth of the talent pool.
In this article, it appears Imran is still talking about similar things. Now, granted, Imran has had much on his plate of late, what, with opening hospitals, leading political reform, imprisonment, tours of the USA, and many other leadership ventures I have no appreciation of.
In a riveting interview with Andrew Denton, which aired last night in Australia, Imran responded candidly and honestly to many questions, including "Do you think you will ever be Prime Minister of Pakistan", to which he responded "I have no doubt I will be Prime Minister one day".
Amazing stuff. Now, as I said, while he has a fair deal more than just cricket on his plate in that part of the world, stuff I am not qualified to speak of here, it is interesting to note, he is still espousing similar thoughts and plans, for Pakistani cricket, some 20 years on, and will most likely be in a position to do something about it, some time in the future.
Imran Khan, a class act and an incredibly intelligent human being.
2 comments so far...:
I suppose now is as good a time as any for Pakistan to revamp its domestic cricket and infrastructure. Not many teams are likely to tour. Implementing change will be easier.
That said, how different is a company based domestic system to a franchisee based one?!
Yes - I think region based, adds a degree of loyalty and passion that pushes players that little bit harder, when the chips are down, than the corporate dollar ever will.
Post a Comment