LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board’s ambitious Pathway Cricket Programme for junior cricketers, which was announced in February, will start with a few initial steps in June before being implemented fully from August.

“We are inviting the boys for their different tests to complete the homework, before starting it from the month of August,” PCB’s director high performance Nadeem Khan told Dawn on Tuesday.

Nadeem added that the monthly stipend for the junior players will begin from August from session-to-session of their education programme.

The players had been expecting their monthly stipends of Rs30,000 from March, following their selection, and Nadeem said that the PCB was deliberating about paying the players’ dues from a back-date.

Nadeem informed that some foreign coaches, who would monitor the entire programme, had been shortlisted and soon the contracts would be signed with them. Local coaches will implement the training and coaching plans prepared by the foreign coaches and the performances of the players and coaches would be reviewed after every three months.

It was during the last edition of the Pakistan Super League that PCB chairman Ramiz Raja announced that 100 junior players will be selected from across the country for the Pathway programme, which apart from the stipend would also ensure they get free education from a leading school system.

Apart from the Pathway programme, the PCB is also trying to improve the domestic infrastructure by developing 115 grounds and laying around 1000 pitches to meet the demands of the domestic cricket programme.

“Negotiations with all the four provincial governments are in the final stages to sign MoUs before starting the work,” Nadeem informed.

For developing the grounds, the PCB will also need curators and groundsmen. However, it has already suspended a number of them after ending the regional cricket associations in August 2019.

“The PCB will hire more curators and groundmen while also giving chances to the old ones,” Nadeem added.

The PCB is also adding another tier in domestic cricket at the divisional level. Players coming through from district level will now play at divisional level before the provincial level.

The problem, however, has arisen at district level with the PCB suspending suspending the process of club scrutiny and registration in August 2019 before recently hiring the services of a private company to complete the task.

Nadeem said that the PCB was going to organise an Under-19 tournament at district level from June 10 before tournaments at divisional and provincial levels by August with the top talents set to be available for the draft ceremony of the inaugural Pakistan Junior League in September.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2022