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Pakistan is proof you don't need the world of money to put on a proper cricket team. The PCB is one of the poorer boards, with some of the poorest people on earth and yet still they are producing a consistently competitive squad. When everybody is pulling more or less in the same direction and you don't have pygmy megalomaniacs around, you could field a good side

In reply to Jumpstart

Would you say that the then WICBC when WI were dominant in the 80’s was a “good” board with everybody pulling in the same direction?

In reply to Jumpstart

Pakistan is a team fortunate to have talent popping up consistently.

They however don’t handle them well.

In reply to Jumpstart

You need to put up the numbers. What is the PCB's current annual budget (2022-23) compared to CWI?

1.Pakistan has 215 MILLION PEOPLE
2.Pakistan has 10 cities that have populations over 1 MILLION PEOPLE
3.If Wasim and Waqar held a free fast bowling clinic in Karachi they would get over 1,000 fast bowlers in attendance.
4. Curtly Ambrose held a fast bowling clinic in Berbice and we were excited that 60 fast bowlers showed up.

Anybody who knows the history of Pakistan cricket would not post about the virtues of Pakistani cricket administration.

In reply to Dukes

60? That’s an impressive number for one jurisdiction. Congrats! Thumbs up emoji

In reply to imusic

in the early 80s with Allan Rae certainly. Not that it did much....because all the WICB needed to do in those days was stay out of myopic selection practices. There were enough great players to field two number one teams.

In reply to Jumpstart

Yes. Correct all you need is a match fixing policy!!!

In reply to Dukes

not talking about historically....im talking about now. Pakistan is not a gung ho, inconsistent team now for the most part. They are one of the most consistent sides in world cricket and a very difficult side to beat. The team has a serenity about it that was not there before, you don't expect them to have sudden rushes of blood or spectacularly collapse to mediocre bowling. Ramiz Raja, the president, is an extremely calm, reasonable man and the administration he runs is the same way. When Imran was booted as PM, everyone thought that chaos would have enveloped the PCB, as its board is appointed by the government. That didn't happen. In fact imran has been out of office close to three months already and the PCB is still stable. You can't have a good team in an atmosphere of chaos. You've been watching cricket much long that I have, so you'd this already. I mean the WI is living proof of that

Ok, let me help out. Here is the PCB's current budget as well as a plan for the year 2022-23. Does anyone know what is CWI?

Budget

In reply to Kay

just over 67 million US to cater for potentially close to half a billion cricket fans and thousands of professional and semi professional cricketers.....plus the use of their academies and home and away series.....its actually not a large amount.......I believe the CWI had an academy and it wasn't closed down due to financial considerations......which goes back to my argument about megalomaniacal administrators who seem to be incapable of seeing the big picture.

In reply to Dukes

Only lame jackasses will use population number as a factor to dismiss valid arguments..I know for a fact that you aren't a lame jackass..

In reply to Jumpstart

Babar Azam is the reason for the Pak's recent performances. He is extremely calm. He is leading from the front this young well balanced side of talented individuals.
I dont know about Ramiz Raja being extremely calm....not so when he was on TV cricket commentary for more than a decade

In reply to Khaga

is simple common sense......WI beat england in 2009, a country with plenty more resources and a bigger population than us. What happened when we travelled two weeks later? We were hammered because the WICB had agreed to an english series that summer(which wasn't on the FTP) behind the players' backs as a test run for the ashes that year. Ditto with the next morons that replaced hunte and hillaire......they tried to use the elite players salaries to fund that ridiculous PCL(Picture cutting bravo's contract so that Liam Sebastien, with no hope of making it above the FC Level, could get a 6 month guaranteed contract) and the players left india, to be replaced by players inferior to them. is not rocket science that the side loses

In reply to Narper

babar lost his first test series to NZ in december 2020. Drew with a weak WI team. That side's renaissance really started last year during the t20 WC last year. Since then they've only lost a test series to a very good aussie team this year. Not saying babar is not a good captain, but i am saying their is stability around their cricketing structure, stability that wasn't there before.

Conversely there is little stability around the WI structure......teams that can easily be dismantled once they disagree with the board ceo or president, a juvenile approach to contracts and sponsorships etc

In reply to Jumpstart

Pakistan have done well, given their political and economic turmoil, lack of international cricket and security issues. PCB deserves credit!

In reply to Khaga

exactly

In reply to imusic
Cover drive fuh 4 dat. Fielder didn't even move. Pak has hardly ever had a good admin.

In reply to Brerzerk

Indeed.....which is why i am speaking about the present. And how the serenity of the board is mirrored by the team. The chaos of the PCB has always made it onto the playing field. Remember how one of the best WC teams ever in 1999 collapsed into chaos in the final, swiftly followed by the Qayyum report?

In reply to imusic

there was pulling of course....viv ony got the captaincy by one vote in 85 after clive retired, even though he was Clive's deputy after Deryck Murray retired in 1980. But the team was winning and only a mad man would interfere with a winning side. All the insecurities and insularity of the WICBC got exposed when viv retired and was replaced by the yes man. And they became full blown plagues when the WI lost in 95

In reply to Jumpstart

The same Allan Rae and WICBC that banned the same players from WI cricket, resulting in them going to Packer?

Interesting.

In reply to Dukes
It was like you said for most of their history, but of late Rameez Raja has done a great job they have restructured their entire domestic competition about 2 years ago

In reply to imusic

I agree, surprise myself

In reply to Jumpstart
Fair enough

In reply to imusic
No we didn't ban ours others did . That's why we were playing vs a weak Oz side. When Rookies Haynes and Austin signed up they were dropped for the next test. This caused Lloyd to resign so the whole team walked off the jobb in support

In reply to Jumpstart

Good post, I was about to argue that the successive PCB regimes right up to a few years ago were all misfits, but then you clarified you were referencing the current administration and in retrospect, I must agree that Ramiz has done a decent job.

A few factors contributed:

1. Up to 5 years ago, the PCB strategy was horrible: They pursued a policy that sought to compel the ICC to get India to end its boycott.
2. They tried to get the ICC to pay them money for lack of tours to Pakistan
3. They made lot of noise and just waited for something to happen

None of these worked, until suddenly they were awaken and decided to change course by starting their own T-20 league, by fixing their first class structure, and by working with individual boards to resume tours. India was simply ignored.

As you sighted, their cricket has improved tremendously and this new young bunch is not seeing India as their pathway to success.

About 18 months ago Younis Khan visited Long Island, and was having dinner with Cameron, a grand nephew arranged a FaceTime with me, we had a brief chat and he was highly confident of their future.

In reply to imusic

would not have been Rae...he was president from 81-83. Stollmeyer is the dude who was president during packer business. Ironically, the agreement between packer and the wicb was that the WI players would be available whenever needed but i guess the planters running the board didn't want the players to have that financial independence

In reply to Emir

yuh mean Whycliff........oh well, different strokes for different folks and khan would not have known the disaster his presidency was. You're really fortunate man. Younis was oe of my favorite batsmen of the late 90s/2000s. Not as graceful as Mohammed Yosuf, who was my 2nd favorite batsman after BCL(although he was another one used to get good lbw shouts in his favor; not as lucky as kallis though),but very consistent, even when the team was in chaos

heads will roll

In reply to Narper
The people of Pakistan are way more concerned with the post food disaster across 1/3 if the country

In reply to Chrissy

Word.

That flood is devastating

In reply to Chrissy

Agree this is a life altering devastating flood for millions in Pakistan

Sri Lanka is also going tru economic/political hell in the last year