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The Cricket Management Committee (CMC) of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has assured that the forthcoming 2002-2003 domestic season would be competitive and predicted to produce a few quality cricketers.

The chairman of the CMC, Iqbal Qasim, Wednesday said the total number of matches to be played this season would be less than last season.

"We have done this to improve the overall standard of the game. There should be lesser games but must be highly competitive and should produce some promising players," Iqbal said. He said last season, a total of 475 matches, including 118 first-class games, were organized.

"This season there will be 444 matches, including 86 first- class games. The CMC is convinced that there would be an overall improvement with this concept," he said.

Iqbal also defended the CMC's decision to guarantee a minimum of five first-class matches to a player in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy. He said a good team would get a maximum of eight matches in the Quaid Trophy as the CMC has introduced knockout stage from the quarterfinals stage.

He further argued that a quality player can get as many as 15 first-class games in the season. "A good cricketer can play until the final of the Quaid Trophy and another seven games in the Super League that will be competed by the provincial teams.

"In the Super League, there is no condition that the provincial sides would only comprise Pakistan colour holders or current Test players. Any player who is good and promising will be picked to represent his province." However, Iqbal failed to justify the reduction of first-class matches for the departmental and associational teams. Last year, each association and department played at least eight matches before the final.

The 25 teams in Quaid Trophy, to be jointly played by both the departments and associations, will be equally divided into four pools. "It is an attempt to minimize the loss of talent as it has been observed in the past that associations and departments have either overlooked young players or those players just fail to make their way in the team in the presence of established players.

Iqbal also explained the complex relegation and promotion system. "The points table of departments and associations will be maintained on match-by-match basis and at the end of the tournament, the bottom placed association and department teams would be relegated.

"If there is a tie, then the result against each other would be seen or the net-run-rate can also come into effect. But the points system for the first-class season remains what was last season."

The PCB, in a statement later in the day, claimed it had done the budgeting of the season. But it refused to reveal details, saying: "Budgeting has been done, it was not deemed necessary to make all those little details public."

The statement is nothing but an attempt to sweep the issue under the carpet because budgeting of the tournament is not a "little detail". It is a crucial issue as it should be highlighted prior to the start of the season what would be the expenses and how the PCB would meet those expenses.

The PCB also admitted that it had not secured any sponsorships, like last year, but hoped that the Super League would be sponsored. "The PCB has approached many potential sponsors and there is every likelihood that a deal for Super League would be signed soon."

The PCB also played down the workload of the umpires during the season. The board said there would be a 37-day Ramazan break which would be enough for Grade-I umpires to recharge their batteries and come fresh for the rest of the season.

The Grade-I umpires will supervize the Under-19, first-class and one-day tournament matches while Grade-II umpires will supervize the Grade-II and Grade-III competitions. There are around 50 umpires in the panel of the PCB.

The following is the comparison of matches held last year and planned for the coming season.

* First-class (last year): 118.

This year: 86.

* One-day tournament (last year): 99.

This year: 72.

* Non-first-class games (last year): 86.

This year: 118.

* Under-19 games (last year): 155.

This year: 168.

© Dawn