Pakistan needs to improve the domestic cricket structure – Mohammad Hafeez

Pakistan’s T20 captain, Mohammad Hafeez feels that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) needs to improve the standard of domestic cricket in the country if it wants to produce players of the highest ability in future.

The right-handed batsman is presently leading Lahore Lions in the Faysal Bank Super 8 T20 Tournament 2013, with his team doing a splendid job, winning all three group matches. The Lions look favourite to clinch the title in the presence of a number of international cricketers like Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Aizaz Cheema and Wahab Riaz.

Hafeez, however, is not too happy with the facilities which are offered to the domestic players and thinks that the authorities can enhance the quality of the sport at the national level by improving the pitches and the playing facilities. The cricketer from Sargodha also urged the upcoming players to give more importance to domestic cricket. The T20 skipper claims that the selection of the national team is done on merit.

“It’s not like we aren’t picking the right players, those [the one’s picked for the national team] are the same players who are performing well on domestic circuit. But there are various areas we need to improve on in the domestic structure including the pitches, making them more competitive,” the all-rounder expressed. “Players who are in contention for national selection should play more domestic cricket.”

The opening batsman further added that playing against South Africa in the recently-concluded series under difficult circumstances is going help the team do well in future, although he is disappointed with the way Green Shirts performed in the Test series against the Proteas.

“Obviously, the way we lost the Test series in South Africa was very disappointing for us, but we came back strongly in the T20 match and the one-day series and finished on a positive note. Having played such tough cricket it will benefit us for future assignments,” he added.

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Mar 29 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.