Pakistan Signs ‘Historic’ Agreement for Promoting Cricket at Grassroots Levels

,The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently signed agreements that have been described as ‘historic’. They are aimed at promoting cricket in educational institutions across the country at grassroots levels.

This will be accomplished via academies and scholarships.

The PCB signed the said agreements with the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Inter-Board Coordination Commission (IBCC).

The Agreements

Pakistan’s national squad has delivered a string of poor performances in international tournaments recently. This has prompted cricket commentators and analysts to express their concerns.

According to cricket experts, the frequent changes in leadership of the board and the lack of proper domestic infrastructure has resulted in a lack of cricketing talent in the country.

The agreements were signed in Islamabad at the CDA headquarters on Sunday. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Mohsin Naqvi, the Education Minister of Pakistan and the PCB chairman, respectively, signed the agreements.

There were also senior officials of the IBCC, CDA and HEC in attendance. The PBC said that they had signed historic memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with the CDA, HEC and IBCC.

It said that these agreements would help in promoting cricket. Plus, they would also result in improvement in the cricketing infrastructure in universities, colleges and schools all across Pakistan.

The Details

According to the PCB, they have a comprehensive plan, which includes organizing leagues and tournaments at different educational levels.

This would be aimed at both girls and boys all over the country. It added that the initiative would also promote women’s cricket. Moreover, higher education institutions would also set up cricket academies.

The board further revealed that sports scholarships will be awarded to outstanding players by the HEC.

Furthermore, the agreements also dictate that training will be provided to both girls and boys in school camps by PCB coaches.

The Impact

The board asserted that top performers of college and school tournaments would get training at High-Performance Centers. They would also have the opportunity of joining PCB U17 and U19 teams.

Apart from that, players who are selected from inter-university championships would also be able to enroll in training courses of the PCB.

The Chairman of PCB, Mohsin Naqvi, shared his excitement over the agreements between the different parties. He said that it would be helpful in discovering young cricket talent in the country.

He stated that they were looking forward to promoting cricket at grassroots levels. Chairman of PCB added that they would be able to spot and nurture young talent across Pakistan.

They would organize inter-university, inter-collegiate and inter-school tournaments to accomplish this.

Siddiqui said that schools have a great deal of talent and school-level sports often reveals exceptional players.

He said that with these agreements, the IBCC would be able to organize tournaments and cooperate with all educational boards.

Meanwhile, the HEC would have the responsibility of developing a framework for cricket promotion in higher education institutions.