The Lahore City Cricket Association, once the most productive nursery of Pakistan cricket, is now struggling with a serious talent drought. But its President Khawaja Nadeem Ahmed wants the LCCA to develop into one of the most sustainable model bodies in the country.
It was under Khawaja Nadeem that Lahore won the National T20 title and is now the national ODI champion. It is now among the top four teams in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy and it’s women team is the winner of National T20 title. In just one-and-a-half-year time, Lahore has done what it failed to achieve in nearly half a decade. Nadeem is keen to revive the Club League from this month with the zones generating 50 per cent of the finances and the remaining 50 percent would be provided by Nadeem himself.
When asked about how long the self-reliance would last, he was of the opinion that the LCCA should be sustainable body and the pattern should be followed by all the coming presidents. “The investment should be made in the grass root level and the Pakistan Cricket Board has to understand the importance of club cricket. Without strong club structure Pakistan cricket cannot survive. The shorter version of the game and tape ball cricket has already damaged it a lot. See how the countries are progressing in the game where tape ball cricket is not being played,” he said.
He plans to introduce three-day cricket tournament for the top 10 to 12 clubs of the city and also has plans to hold divisional cricket similar to the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Grade I and II. “We also have a programme to organize Division I, II and III tournament for clubs with the top team moving up and the bottom team being relegated to lower divisions. With this we would have cricket round the year and only best performers would survive,” he added.
“The selection should be performance-based. Although we have trials but the two Lahore teams for the ongoing under-19 tournament were picked on long-term performance. Things can’t be changed overnight. Everyone knows what happened during the last 22 years,” he said. Under his predecessor Aamir Hayat Khan Rokari Lahore cricket never got going. In his tenure only a couple of clubs had the right of selection and he never bothered to change the selection criteria.
Kh Nadeem convinced Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif to develop new grounds and revive some of the old ones which were being used for holding marriage parties. “Now we would have 122 fully developed grounds for the game with five to six of them with proper wickets. We have also reserved areas in small parks for cricket practice,” he added. He further said the outstanding issues of the occupation of Law College ground opposite to Chishti High School Krishan Nagar would soon be resolved. I have met the commissioner Lahore and the ground would soon be handed over for cricket purposes only.”
“There is going to be scrutiny next year in Lahore clubs and we have already directed all the clubs to revive their nets and hold practice on regular basis or lose their voting right. Once there is proper scrutiny, the game will start to flourish on the right lines and the cricketers who want to switch from one club to another would be allowed once in a year and that’s in April,” he added.
“In fact we want a zone to have a maximum of 25 to 30 clubs operating under it and are going to propose the PCB to have another zone. Once things start moving in a right direction, Lahore would automatically start to produce quality cricketers, he said. “The International Cricket Council wants all the boards to have a democratically elected president and the PCB is no exception but currently there is no person capable of contesting president’s post. I believe with the amendment proposed in the PCB constitution and with the ICC at your back good material would start to come at regional president level also,” he said.
Kh Nadeem is not only the president of the Lahore cricket but also the chief executive of Shapes, one of most vibrant health and fitness centres of the country. “We have physios, trainers, dietitians, instructors, coaches and a team of doctors who regularly visit and recommend patients and players for rehabilitation. In the centre at Lahore alone there is a great influx of people here and we have similar facility at Defence, Garden Town and Model Town while we also have a branch at Karachi and franchises at Gujrat and at Allama Iqbal Town and Johar Town,” he said.
