LAHORE-Newly-appointed HPC Director Nadeem Khan has claimed that once he and his team starts working after COVID-19 pandemic, the results will be delivered within six months.
Among the many changes made under the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) incumbent regime, one was its decision to merge domestic cricket with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and name the new entity High Performance Centre (HPC). “So far only the name of NCA has changed; actual work has not begun yet which is why no difference can be seen yet. Our work will be seen in the next six months. Then it won’t seem that only the name of NCA has changed,” Nadeem said here on Tuesday.
The HPC Director feels that Pakistan cricket’s domestic structure is not at par with the rest of the top teams and there is a dire need to fix it. “It’s not that the work was not done under previous regimes. Those, who were at the NCA, did good work and Pakistan did produce good players but everyone also noticed that there was a major disparity between Pakistan cricket and modern day cricket,” he said.
“This was noted in Test cricket too so the High Performance Centre was created to reduce that vast difference. We do not have to just cover this gap soon but we also have to take the lead,” said Nadeem, who is brother of renowned 90s wicketkeeper Moin Khan.
Defining the roles of head of international player development Saqlain Mushtaq and head of coaching Grant Bradburn, the former cricketer said hopefully, both will deliver. “We had coaches before as well but this time, a concentrated effort has been made to assign an expert to a particular field.
“Saqlain will identify new talent with the help of local coaches and develop them. The HPC will be of international standards. This is a difficult task but Saqlain is capable of delivering results. Similarly, Bradburn will identify local coaches and educate them as per modern cricket standards,” he added.
Nadeem also defended the PCB’s move to merge the two setups. “This was the perfect time to merge domestic department and academies because all teams in domestic cricket are now under the board’s control. Both these departments had one task, which was to develop players for Pakistan,” he said.
“Now, there won’t be any player, who will not get an opportunity. Players will be developed at the HPC and then they will be given chances in the first-class cricket under all circumstances. Players from U-19 level won’t get lost either,” Nadeem concluded.