Pakistan cricket team star Faheem Ashraf, who has played 17 Tests, 34 ODIs and 48 T20Is, has made a revelation about the state of cricket in the country. Answering a question on the controversial umpiring in the domestic Champions Cup, Ashraf, who is playing for Dolphins, said something very interesting. He said that at the domestic level umpires have an understanding with the players as they are 'friends'.
"All the good umpires in Pakistan are gone from domestic cricket. Umpiring in domestic cricket is also like this (poor) but because there is no TV coverage, no one has the idea. In domestic, sometimes the batters say that they are not out even after getting out, while the bowlers say the opposite. Now (with the Champions Cup) everyone knows at what level umpiring is in Pakistan. Good or bad, everyone knows now. Those who are appointing them have to see now who should be umpiring at what level," Faheem Ashraf told the media.
"In domestic cricket, umpires ke saath dosti yaari hai (we are friends with the umpires). Hum umpire se bach jaate hai aur woh humara no. le lete hai. (Sometimes we get saved by umpires even take our phone numbers). I am talking straight). But there is no friendship here (in the Champions Cup) because everything is on the (TV) screen. Everybody is watching."
Pakistan's white-ball head coach, Gary Kirsten, emphasised the need to establish the same brand of cricket in the domestic format that is required in the international circuit for success, sources told Geo News.
Kirsten met the mentors and the head coaches of the teams in Paksitan's domestic Champions Cup in Faisalabad. Misbah-ul-Haq, Saqlain Mushtaq, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, and Waqar Younis are the five mentors in the Champions Cup. Sources told Geo News that during the meeting, various aspects of cricket were discussed in the presence of high-performance coach David Reid and Director of High Performance and the Champions Cup Nadeem Khan.