Pakistan’s cricket performance has declined in recent series, leading the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to adopt a new approach to talent identification.
Mohsin Naqvi, PCB chief, announced that the board is utilizing artificial intelligence to select players from the domestic pool. While AI is common in IT and e-commerce, the PCB is the first to publicly use it for player selection.
At a press conference, Naqvi addressed concerns about the national men’s team’s performance, particularly after their recent home loss to Bangladesh. Following Pakistan’s early exit from the 2024 T20 World Cup, Naqvi had called for major changes, but few actions have been taken since.
“The problem is the selection committee has no pool to turn to from which to select players,” said the PCB chair. “I spoke of surgery because we need to fix our problems. But when we look at how to resolve them, we don’t have any solid data or player pool which we can draw from. The whole system was a mess. The Champions Cup will produce great talent, and we’ll have records for the games that happen. For surgery, you need all the tools to perform it,” he stated.
“We had a lot of players for which we didn’t have records. This Cup will make domestic cricket strong; we’ll have a pool of 150 players, and then the surgery we need to be done, the selection committee will do. People said ‘Do it all today, slit the throats of four-five players, and get rid of them’. You can’t dump someone unless you have a better one to replace them,” added Naqvi.
Naqvi disclosed that AI will be used to select 80% of the 150 players, with human input contributing only 20%.
“Of these 150 players that have been selected, 80% of it has been done by AI (Artificial intelligence), and 20% using humans. Nobody can challenge that. We gave about 20% weightage to our selection committee. If we replace a player with a worse one, you’ll be the first to complain. We’ll have records and we’ll all be able to see transparently who deserves a place in the team,” the chairman said.
“The Champions Cup will end in September, and then there will be records for everyone. Anyone who isn’t performing will be immediately replaced. It shouldn’t come down to anyone’s individual opinions and wishes,” he added.
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