PCB eyes domestic cricket restructure, announces departure of officials

Pakistans chief curator Agha Zahid and Haroon Rashid, Director – Domestic Cricket, will leave the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) when their contracts expire. Rashids contract will end on April 31 while that of Zahid on May 31.

PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said the board will now use this opportunity restructure the National Cricket Academy and domestic cricket to create a different and streamlined high performance structure that serves the game and its cricketers in a more seamless way.

"Amongst many areas, the new system will focus on coach education and the assessment and re-training of our current elite coaches; in addition, the improved streamlined system will enable us to further bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket," PCB media release quoted Khan as saying.

Rashid was re-employed in April 2017. Prior to his reappointment, he had served the PCB in various roles including chief selector, Pakistan senior and junior national teams' coach and manager, head of youth game development and acting head of the NCA.

"In my latest stint with the PCB, I was particularly pleased with the way we planned, implemented and delivered the new but highly successful and competitive domestic structure within a very short span of time. This was a result of a complete team effort and I thank all my colleagues who got behind the new structure and supported me," Rashid said.

"While I will continue to follow Pakistan cricket and pray for its progression, I will now focus on other priorities in life and try to spend some quality time with my family," he added.

Zahid, on the other hand, had joined the PCB in 2001 after retiring from first-class cricket in 1992-93.

"I had an excellent time with the PCB in the past 19 years, in which I oversaw the preparation of pitches that produced stars who continued to keep Pakistan at the top of the cricket pedestal. Obviously, the role had its own challenges and sometimes my team and I were at the wrong end of the stick. But overall, I had a highly satisfying time," Zahid said.

The highly-rated Ali Raza Siddiqui, who has been Zahid's deputy for the last two years, will take over the role in the interim period, while the restructuring process of the two departments will commence from next week.