NOTE: This is a draft proposal of future Outlay (Amateur / Junior / Club) Cricket in Pakistan for review and consideration.

1-1. Background

Sports at School and Club level are considered as nursery for any sorts anywhere in the world. Cricket is no exception. When Pakistan came into existence, it was School and Club Cricket that gave us many players. There used to be traditional positive rivalries between several Schools and Clubs in many cities and the competitive nature of those matches gave the young country very good talent.

Later on with commercialization of Cricket and advent of Departments into Pakistan's first-class Cricket structure that the importance of this game at Schools and Clubs Cricket level wrongly got overlooked and/or neglected.

Pakistanis are not very rich people, since eighty-percent of us belong to lower middle-class. As such, when Departments like Pakistan International Airlines (P.I.A.), Railways, several banks and so on, came up with the plan to have their own Cricket teams playing in first-class cricket, it has ever since been welcomed. The reason is that these departments provide reasonable paying employment on temporary and permanent basis to not very well-off young talent of the country. The standard of Department cricket is a little higher, when compared to City Association cricket because of the open choice of hiring better professional players. Each Department's Cricket budget is minimum Rs.1500, 000 per year (excluding salaries).

Considering all these positive points, Department Cricket cannot and should not be finished. It is here to stay. However it does not mean that Cricket Administrators should neglect Cricket below the first-class level (which is played in separate City Association and Department team’s competitions). It is the Cricket below the first-class level at School and Club levels, which should be revived to provide a strong platform in sending forth the talent to the first-class and International Cricket.

Here I would like to inform about an amazing day in the history of Cricket. It was in 1985-86 season that Pakistan toured Sri Lanka under Imran Khan. In Colombo on the morning of March 16 - 1986, Sri Lanka was on the verge of beating Pakistan for the first time. Only three thousand people came to the stadium to watch this win, although the entry ticket prices were considerably reduced. Why then only three thousands came to watch the then babes of cricket win a test match against strong Pakistanis at home? Because almost twenty thousand people had gone to watch the final of Sri Lanka School Championship being played in the same city Colombo on the same day. Isn't it amazing? If the Cricket Administrators in Pakistan also take the Cricket below first-class seriously, we can develop a similar atmosphere.

In Australia, most of the players reach their Sheffield Cup first-class season after going through the Grade and Academy Cricket. What is Grade Cricket? It is basically cricket at grassroots level played between several local clubs.

Structure and organization of first-class cricket has been discussed in a different document, here the structure of National Program for Cricket below first-class cricket is discussed.

1-2. Revival Of Club Cricket

All the main Ten City Cricket Associations should initiate Club Cricket Championships in their cities. They should have Senior League Clubs registered, while Junior League Clubs affiliated, with the City Association. These Club Cricket competitions in each City can be called Inter-District or Inter-Zonal Tournaments.

Like for instance, in Karachi, there are four prominent Districts (Central, Eastern, Southern and Malir). Each zone has almost thirty registered Cricket clubs. Now four competitions at zonal level can decide top four qualifying clubs from each of the four zones to compete in the citywide sixteen teams Club Cricket Championship. Semi-Finals and Final of this Championship should be shown to the whole country via live TV broadcast. Similarly all the other nine cities can devise their own comparable formats for Club Cricket.

These matches can either be one-day (sixty-over an inning) or two-days with sixty-over a side in the first innings. If a team is out for less than forty-five over in the first innings, the team batting second would get extra fifteen over for bowling the opponent out for less than forty-five over. These matches can be played in Summer Day-Light between 8:30AM.-6:45PM. (Four sessions 8:30AM-10:30AM. [thirty over] - 11:15AM.-1:15PM. [thirty over] - 2:00PM.-4:00PM. [thirty over] - and - 4:45PM.-6:45PM. [thirty over]).

1-3. Revival Of School Cricket

Revival of School Cricket may be little difficult in Pakistan because this level of Cricket is under Education Boards. What City Associations can do is to start organizing School Cricket on the same pattern as Club Cricket. Based on the performances in the different Cities School Championships, the N.W.F.P., Balouchistan, Punjab and Federal Education Boards select their respective teams for "The Prime-Minister Of Pakistan Inter-Provincial School Cricket Trophy". Salient matches like the Semi-Finals (if any) and Final of this Trophy should be shown live on TV.

These matches again can either be one-day (sixty-over an inning) or two-days with sixty-over a side in the first innings. If a team is out for less than forty-five over in the first innings, the team batting second would get extra fifteen over for bowling the opponent out for less than forty-five over. These matches can be played in Summer Day-Light between 8:30AM.-6:45PM. (Four sessions 8:30AM-10:30AM. [thirty over] - 11:15AM.-1:15PM. [thirty over] - 2:00PM.-4:00PM. [thirty over] - and - 4:45PM.-6:45PM. [thirty over]).