Balochistan cricket team
Balochistan cricket team, representing the province of Balochistan, is a first-class cricket team in Pakistan.
Cricket in Balochistan
In his history of Pakistan cricket Peter Oborne notes that Balochistan province "has been wracked by insurgencies for many years" and cricket "has never made much headway. No Baluchi cricketer has ever won international honours." Owing to the security situation, no first-class cricket matches were played in Balochistan between 2008 and 2019.Cricket teams of Balochistan province
In the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy and other first-class tournaments in Pakistan, Balochistan province has usually been represented since the 1957-58 season by the Quetta cricket team, except for two matches in 1969-70 when a team from Kalat also played. There were no first-class teams at all from Balochistan province between 1987 and 2002, when Quetta's first-class status was in abeyance.Balochistan have played seven matches in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy and 18 matches in the Pentangular Cup between 2007–08 and 2011-12. Of their 25 matches they have won 4, lost 17, and drawn 4.
A Rest of Balochistan team played at first-class level in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy in 2001-02. Their name distinguished them from Quetta, although Quetta at the time were playing only at the sub-first-class level of the Trophy. Rest of Baluchistan won 1 match, lost 3, and drew 4.
Altogether, at the end of 2013, the four Balochistan province teams - Quetta, Kalat, Balochistan, and Rest of Balochistan - had played 168 matches, with 24 wins, 99 losses, and 45 draws.
Balochistan's playing history
1950s
In 1954-55 Balochistan played one match in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, losing to Sind by 53 runs at the Racecourse Ground, Quetta. They were captained by Athar Khan, who made 36 and 57 and took two wickets.A combined Railways and Balochistan team played the MCC in Multan in 1955-56, losing by an innings. None of the team had played for Balochistan in the 1954-55 match.
1970s
Each season from 1972-73 to 1978-79 Balochistan played one match in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy. They lost all six matches, five of them by an innings and the other by 259 runs. They were dismissed for under 100 seven times. Their lowest total was 53 against National Bank of Pakistan in 1974-75. They dismissed their opponents only once.In 1973-74 they conceded a total of 951 for 6 declared to Sind, Aftab Baloch scoring 428. He made 200 not out for National Bank against Balochistan in 1974-75, giving him a career average of 628.00 against Balochistan. Sind's victory margin in the 1973-74 match, an innings and 575 runs, is one of the highest in the history of first-class cricket.
Shahid Fawad was Balochistan's most successful batsman in this period. He played four matches, scoring 32 not out and 25 in 1972-73, and 33 and 94 against Sind in 1978-79.
In 1978-79 a "North West Frontier Province and Balochistan" team played the touring Indians in a drawn first-class match in Peshawar. The team actually included no players from Balochistan teams or from Balochistan province.
1980s
Three first-class matches between a Balochistan Governor's XI and visiting international teams were held in the late 1980s at the Ayub National Stadium in Quetta: the West Indians won by an innings and 89 runs in 1986-87; the Australians drew in 1988-89; and Sri Lanka B drew later the same season. In each case the Balochistan Governor's XI consisted mostly of local players, augmented with some prominent players from other parts of Pakistan.A team of Pakistan international players played as the Balochistan Governor's XI in a 40-over match against the touring Indians in 1982-83, also at the Ayub National Stadium. The Indians won.
2001-02
Rest of Balochistan began their only season of first-class cricket reasonably well, drawing their first three matches and winning their fourth. In the first match the captain, Nasim Khan, scored the team's only century, 104 and he finished the season as the highest run-scorer, with 471 runs in the eight matches at an average of 31.40. He later captained Quetta.In the fourth match, a victory by 24 runs over Hyderabad, the opening bowler Waqas Chughtai took 7 for 75 and 4 for 45, the best innings and match figures for Rest of Balochistan. Chughtai was the team's leading wicket-taker, with 21 at 31.76 in six matches.
Of Rest of Balochistan's last four matches, three were lost by an innings and one drawn.
Rest of Balochistan's third notable player was the all-rounder Naseer Khan, who made his first-class debut in the first match. He led the team's batting averages with 393 runs in seven matches at 39.30 and came second in the bowling averages with 16 wickets at 32.75. Like Nasim Khan, he was born in Quetta.
2006-07
In 2006-07 a combined North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan team was one of the three provincial teams that played in the annual first-class pentangular tournament. They won one match, lost two and drew one, finishing last. Of the 19 players, six - Arun Lal, Shoaib Khan, Jalat Khan, Sabir Hussain, Umar Javed and Faisal Irfan - were from Balochistan province.2008 to 2012
The pentangular tournament was revamped in 2007-08 as a competition for the four provinces and the Federal Areas around Islamabad. In order to make the competition even, "the Pakistan Cricket Board selected the top 75 Quaid-e-Azam players plus 20 juniors and divided them , mostly on a regional basis but reallocating some to strengthen the weaker sides." The competition has so far been conducted in this format four times, in 2007-08, 2008–09, 2010–11 and 2011-12. Most of Baluchistan's players in this tournament have actually come from Punjab province.In 2007-08, of the 20 players Balochistan fielded, only five - Nasim Khan, Shoaib Khan, Jalat Khan, Nazar Hussain and Faisal Irfan - were from Baluchistan province. The leading player was Saeed Bin Nasir, who scored 409 runs in the four matches at an average of 58.42, with two centuries. But Balochistan lost all four matches, three of them by an innings.
In 2008-09, with only three players from Balochistan province - Nasim Khan, Shoaib Khan and Nazar Hussain - but an otherwise largely unchanged side, Balochistan finished second after the preliminary rounds and played off in the final. They lost their first match by an innings, but then defeated Sind by six wickets, drew against Punjab, and scored 393 for 8 in the second innings to beat Federal Areas by two wickets. North-West Frontier Province then beat them in a close final by 28 runs.
After a season in which the pentangular tournament was played by different teams, it reverted to an inter-provincial competition in 2010-11. Balochistan won one match, drew two and lost one, and again played off in a closely fought final, losing to Sind this time by six wickets, the captain, Abdur Rauf, scoring 45 and 19 and taking 6 for 143 and 4 for 91. Once again only three players were from Balochistan province - Jalat Khan, Shoaib Khan and Nazar Hussain.
In 2011-12 Balochistan won one match, lost two and drew one, and finished third. Arun Lal and Bismillah Khan were the only players from Balochistan province. The pentangular tournament has not been played since 2011-12.
A 50-over provincial pentangular tournament was also held in 2008-09 and 2009-10. The Balochistan Bears came fifth in 2008-09 with one win and three losses. They rose to second in 2009-10 with three wins and one loss, and played off in the final, losing to the Sind Dolphins. In 2009-10 Rameez Alam won two man-of-the-match awards, and Zulfiqar Babar one, when he took 6 for 10 from eight overs to enable the Baluchistan Bears to defend a total of only 149 against the Punjab Stallions.