I had the chance to follow the recently concluded Pakistan Cup 2017, a domestic One Day tournament involving the 5 provincial teams, and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at what transpired. I also generally agreed with the overall sentiment that the tournament was a success and was a strong follow up to the PSL 2017.
However, when I took a closer look at what transpired, I wasn't so sure anymore. Team Federal won the tournament under Imad Wasim's captaincy and they did so in style chasing 2 mammoth totals against the other star team of the tournament, Balochistan.
A successful domestic tournament, in my limited understanding, should aim to:
On the bowling front, Aamer Yamin leads the pack with 9 wickets for the tournament at an unflattering average of 33 and an equally unflattering economy of 6.88. With the 9 wickets including a five for in one match, it really comes down to a wicket each in the rest of the matches and one can argue if the overall haul is good enough or not. I tent not to agree and am disappointed not to see a frontline bowler with more wickets overall, however, Aamer's strike rate was 28.7 which is quite decent. Couple this with his batting ability already mentioned above along with him finishing matches and performing in both disciplines in the same match, he's shaping up well to fill that Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood role. Having said that, the last player who came close was Hammad Azam and we all know how that turned out. The other recent pretenders were Anwar Ali and Bilawal Bhatti with an all too familiar ending. Let's hope for Pakistan's sake this is not a false dawn.
Fahim Ashraf, seems to be another player on the radar, and surprisingly, he's second on the list with 8 wickets at a much better average of 23.6 and an economy of 5.78. His strike rate of 24.5 is better than Aamer's and his best innings also included a five for for just 45 runs. However, he wasn't able to match Aamer's batting heroics in 4 matches which included a couple of 30s, a first ball duck and a no result.
The presence of Umar Gul, Sohail Khan and Imran Khan in the top 10 is deceiving on a list where 9 is the highest number of wickets taken in a 5 match tournament. However, Umar Gul has the best average alongside Rumman Raees at 22.4 and Imran Khan matches Fahim's Strike rate of picking up a wicket every 25th delivery. Sohail picked up 7 wickets but at an expensive average of 37 and wasteful economy of almost 8 runs per over.
Three left armer pace bowlers in the Top 10, not a big surprise with the generation inspired by Wasim Akram still at it. Waqas Maqsood comes in at no. 9 with not so impressive figures. Rumman Raees does impress however, at no. 8 with the best average and strike rate in the Top 10, coupled with an acceptable economy of 5.6 runs per over, he's still the best bet for a specialist death bowler. Ghulam Mudassar is an interesting name to find in the Top 4, a 17 year old left arm pacer whose figures don't impress but at that age, he merits to be kept an eye on.
Imad Wasim rounds up the Top 10 with a 4.48 economy rate proving that he can deliver on his role. Mir Hamza merits a mention as he put up a decent showing in the 3 matches he played. Unfortunately for him, left arm bowlers are not what the national team is looking for.
So, on the bowling front, Aamer Yamin, Fahim Ashraf come out as young all rounders with immense potential, Ghulam Mudassar to keep an eye on, Rumman Raees, who's already in the national fold and a host of veterans who don't really get you anywhere. With no strike bowler staking a claim and the overall haul being low as well for the top bowler, the finds here are disappointing.
On the second objective of getting ear marked players some form and fitness, the tournament has been useful. Haris Sohail has already been mentioned. Umar Amin and Iftikhar Ahmed had more than decent outings, along side the experienced duo of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, who kept themselves in form. Mohammad Rizwan too had a fair outing in the tournament.
The tournament was a disappointment for players such as Saman Butt, Sohaib Maqsood, the Akmal brothers, Kamran and Umar, and the much touted Fawad Alam. Although, it can be argued that he got only 2 innings, one of which ended in a century score.
On the bowling side, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Sami and Zulfiqar Babar failed to impress, with Umar Gul, Sohail Khan and Imran Khan doing no harm to their reputations. But it was the all rounders that fared the worst of the lot with Hammad Azam, Anwar Ali, Bilal Asif and Mohammad Nawaz falling further down the pecking order.
On the third objective of playing a brand of cricket, the national team would aspire to, the tournament has been successful in my view. With nine 300+ scores out of a possible 21 completed innings, and a further two scores of 297+, more than 50% of the times teams came out to bat, they hit the 300 mark. You might say, so what, the world has moved on to 350+ scores as a norm and there too, we saw three scores of 350+ with another 5 scores of 323+ showing that more than 90% of the 300+ scores were big ones. The fact that two of the three 350+ scores came in the same match in a successful run chase and that no match had a winning margin of more than 44 runs, shows that teams didn't wilt under the pressure of chasing huge totals and more than put up a fight.
All in all, when the tournament is evaluated in light of the 3 objectives set out, it has been a mixed bag. In terms of the traffic light, the first objective gets a yellow, the second one is closer to a red and the last one gets a green light. Even though the high totals and chasing abilities made for some entertaining cricket, the balance between bat and ball was lacking. It is important to remember that good cricket always stems from sporting wickets. Other points include getting more spectators into the ground and drastically better production values. Both PCB and PTV Sports need to do a lot more in these regards in order to boost the domestic game.
In the end, congratulations to Federal for winning the tournament in exciting fashion and to Balochistan for providing great competition. The power center in terms of teams seems to be shifting from Karachi and Lahore who don't seem to be able to put together winning teams from the biggest talent pools available nationally. With Peshawar winning most of the recent tournaments, Federal winning this one and Balochistan doing well even in the PSL, teams made from players who still hail from Sindh and Punjab, mixed with local talent seems to be proving to be the winning formula.
However, when I took a closer look at what transpired, I wasn't so sure anymore. Team Federal won the tournament under Imad Wasim's captaincy and they did so in style chasing 2 mammoth totals against the other star team of the tournament, Balochistan.
A successful domestic tournament, in my limited understanding, should aim to:
- Unearth new, young talent for the national side
- Provide match practice to ear marked players making comebacks from injury or to existing national players searching for form or consistency
- Provide a platform to practice a brand of cricket which the national team is trying to adopt
The objectives are not limited to the above but in my view are the most important. Now, on the first point, did the tournament unearth new and young talent? Let's look at the list of the best performers in this tournament both in terms of batting and bowling.
The top scorer turned out to be the young and spritely Mohammad Hafeez with an aggregate of 362 runs at an average of above 70 odd, three scores of 50 and a score of 100 with a strike rate just under 100. Mr. consistent if there ever was one, but not really a beacon for the future.
The next 3 names make for very interesting reading and I was pleasantly surprised to see Sami Aslam's name right up there. The fact that he scored 2 centuries in 5 innings and averaged a strike rate of 114 over the tournament seems to show that he can up the ante and bat at pace. His 169 came while chasing the humongous 370+ score showing he has the capability to not only anchor a chase of that size but also dominate it.
Sahibzada Farhan, at 21 years was the biggest ray of sunshine with 4 scores of 50 and a century all made at a strike rate of 103 showcased that he definitely is one for the future.
Fakhar Zaman seems to be the real deal as he followed up his impressive PSL stint with more than a good showing here. He was captaining Balochistan as well which augurs well for future captaincy material candidates.
Shoaib Malik and Akbar ur Rehman round off the top 10 but hold little promise for a long term future whilst perennial domestic scene performers, Khurram Manzoor, Umar Amin and Iftikhar Ahmed had a more than good tournament. However, they have thus far proved to be not ready for the next step whenever they have been given the chance.
One name I was personally glad to see back and in the top 10 was that of Haris Sohail. He had a decent outing at an average of 47 with a century and two 50s and a strike rate of 95. I still see him as a long term player in both the ODI and Test teams.
Umar Akmal was disappointing to say the least and I don't understand why he's been rewarded with a trip to the Champions Trophy. If Umar Akmal was going to get called up, Umar Amin might well have received it as he at least proved his 6 hitting ability finishing with 12 sixes as the highest in the tournament.
Rizwan, Fawad Alam, Bilal Asif, Sohaib Maqsood for me didn't perform well enough to earn anything. Another bright spot though was Aamer Yamin who finished as the best bowler of the tournament and the 11th best batsman. Two scores of 50 at a strike rate of 140 with 17 boundaries and 4 maximums, shows that he knows how to find the rope and clear it when its needed.
So, on the batting side, let's conclude that Sami Aslam and Fakhar Zaman solidified their potential and Sahibzada Farhan is a name for the future. Throw in Aamer Yamin as the all rounder candidate and you have 4 names to work with. Decent out of a potential list of 30 batsmen? Could've been better, but I would just about take this as a selector.
The next 3 names make for very interesting reading and I was pleasantly surprised to see Sami Aslam's name right up there. The fact that he scored 2 centuries in 5 innings and averaged a strike rate of 114 over the tournament seems to show that he can up the ante and bat at pace. His 169 came while chasing the humongous 370+ score showing he has the capability to not only anchor a chase of that size but also dominate it.
Sahibzada Farhan, at 21 years was the biggest ray of sunshine with 4 scores of 50 and a century all made at a strike rate of 103 showcased that he definitely is one for the future.
Fakhar Zaman seems to be the real deal as he followed up his impressive PSL stint with more than a good showing here. He was captaining Balochistan as well which augurs well for future captaincy material candidates.
Shoaib Malik and Akbar ur Rehman round off the top 10 but hold little promise for a long term future whilst perennial domestic scene performers, Khurram Manzoor, Umar Amin and Iftikhar Ahmed had a more than good tournament. However, they have thus far proved to be not ready for the next step whenever they have been given the chance.
One name I was personally glad to see back and in the top 10 was that of Haris Sohail. He had a decent outing at an average of 47 with a century and two 50s and a strike rate of 95. I still see him as a long term player in both the ODI and Test teams.
Umar Akmal was disappointing to say the least and I don't understand why he's been rewarded with a trip to the Champions Trophy. If Umar Akmal was going to get called up, Umar Amin might well have received it as he at least proved his 6 hitting ability finishing with 12 sixes as the highest in the tournament.
Rizwan, Fawad Alam, Bilal Asif, Sohaib Maqsood for me didn't perform well enough to earn anything. Another bright spot though was Aamer Yamin who finished as the best bowler of the tournament and the 11th best batsman. Two scores of 50 at a strike rate of 140 with 17 boundaries and 4 maximums, shows that he knows how to find the rope and clear it when its needed.
So, on the batting side, let's conclude that Sami Aslam and Fakhar Zaman solidified their potential and Sahibzada Farhan is a name for the future. Throw in Aamer Yamin as the all rounder candidate and you have 4 names to work with. Decent out of a potential list of 30 batsmen? Could've been better, but I would just about take this as a selector.
On the bowling front, Aamer Yamin leads the pack with 9 wickets for the tournament at an unflattering average of 33 and an equally unflattering economy of 6.88. With the 9 wickets including a five for in one match, it really comes down to a wicket each in the rest of the matches and one can argue if the overall haul is good enough or not. I tent not to agree and am disappointed not to see a frontline bowler with more wickets overall, however, Aamer's strike rate was 28.7 which is quite decent. Couple this with his batting ability already mentioned above along with him finishing matches and performing in both disciplines in the same match, he's shaping up well to fill that Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood role. Having said that, the last player who came close was Hammad Azam and we all know how that turned out. The other recent pretenders were Anwar Ali and Bilawal Bhatti with an all too familiar ending. Let's hope for Pakistan's sake this is not a false dawn.
Fahim Ashraf, seems to be another player on the radar, and surprisingly, he's second on the list with 8 wickets at a much better average of 23.6 and an economy of 5.78. His strike rate of 24.5 is better than Aamer's and his best innings also included a five for for just 45 runs. However, he wasn't able to match Aamer's batting heroics in 4 matches which included a couple of 30s, a first ball duck and a no result.
The presence of Umar Gul, Sohail Khan and Imran Khan in the top 10 is deceiving on a list where 9 is the highest number of wickets taken in a 5 match tournament. However, Umar Gul has the best average alongside Rumman Raees at 22.4 and Imran Khan matches Fahim's Strike rate of picking up a wicket every 25th delivery. Sohail picked up 7 wickets but at an expensive average of 37 and wasteful economy of almost 8 runs per over.
Three left armer pace bowlers in the Top 10, not a big surprise with the generation inspired by Wasim Akram still at it. Waqas Maqsood comes in at no. 9 with not so impressive figures. Rumman Raees does impress however, at no. 8 with the best average and strike rate in the Top 10, coupled with an acceptable economy of 5.6 runs per over, he's still the best bet for a specialist death bowler. Ghulam Mudassar is an interesting name to find in the Top 4, a 17 year old left arm pacer whose figures don't impress but at that age, he merits to be kept an eye on.
Imad Wasim rounds up the Top 10 with a 4.48 economy rate proving that he can deliver on his role. Mir Hamza merits a mention as he put up a decent showing in the 3 matches he played. Unfortunately for him, left arm bowlers are not what the national team is looking for.
So, on the bowling front, Aamer Yamin, Fahim Ashraf come out as young all rounders with immense potential, Ghulam Mudassar to keep an eye on, Rumman Raees, who's already in the national fold and a host of veterans who don't really get you anywhere. With no strike bowler staking a claim and the overall haul being low as well for the top bowler, the finds here are disappointing.
On the second objective of getting ear marked players some form and fitness, the tournament has been useful. Haris Sohail has already been mentioned. Umar Amin and Iftikhar Ahmed had more than decent outings, along side the experienced duo of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, who kept themselves in form. Mohammad Rizwan too had a fair outing in the tournament.
The tournament was a disappointment for players such as Saman Butt, Sohaib Maqsood, the Akmal brothers, Kamran and Umar, and the much touted Fawad Alam. Although, it can be argued that he got only 2 innings, one of which ended in a century score.
On the bowling side, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Sami and Zulfiqar Babar failed to impress, with Umar Gul, Sohail Khan and Imran Khan doing no harm to their reputations. But it was the all rounders that fared the worst of the lot with Hammad Azam, Anwar Ali, Bilal Asif and Mohammad Nawaz falling further down the pecking order.
On the third objective of playing a brand of cricket, the national team would aspire to, the tournament has been successful in my view. With nine 300+ scores out of a possible 21 completed innings, and a further two scores of 297+, more than 50% of the times teams came out to bat, they hit the 300 mark. You might say, so what, the world has moved on to 350+ scores as a norm and there too, we saw three scores of 350+ with another 5 scores of 323+ showing that more than 90% of the 300+ scores were big ones. The fact that two of the three 350+ scores came in the same match in a successful run chase and that no match had a winning margin of more than 44 runs, shows that teams didn't wilt under the pressure of chasing huge totals and more than put up a fight.
All in all, when the tournament is evaluated in light of the 3 objectives set out, it has been a mixed bag. In terms of the traffic light, the first objective gets a yellow, the second one is closer to a red and the last one gets a green light. Even though the high totals and chasing abilities made for some entertaining cricket, the balance between bat and ball was lacking. It is important to remember that good cricket always stems from sporting wickets. Other points include getting more spectators into the ground and drastically better production values. Both PCB and PTV Sports need to do a lot more in these regards in order to boost the domestic game.
In the end, congratulations to Federal for winning the tournament in exciting fashion and to Balochistan for providing great competition. The power center in terms of teams seems to be shifting from Karachi and Lahore who don't seem to be able to put together winning teams from the biggest talent pools available nationally. With Peshawar winning most of the recent tournaments, Federal winning this one and Balochistan doing well even in the PSL, teams made from players who still hail from Sindh and Punjab, mixed with local talent seems to be proving to be the winning formula.
