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Thursday March 28, 2024

Dual policy of PCB for Karachi

By Syed Intikhab Ali
November 20, 2017
KARACHI: More than three months have passed since the election of Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) became due but there is no elected body to represent the city because of PCB’s alleged delaying tactics.
The cricket fraternity in Karachi was surprised when PCB chairman Najam Sethi said that the question about ignoring Fawad Alam should be directed at the selection committee as he did not interfere in its matters.
Fawad has been scoring heavily in domestic cricket but the selectors have ignored him for years. Sethi said the selection committee headed by Inzamam-ul Haq was an independent body and that he (Sethi) did not believe in interfering in its affairs.
But at the same time when a reporter asked why KCCA election was being delayed, the PCB chairman quickly responded that there was a legal issue because of which KCCA election could not be held. A representative of KCCA Zone II has dual nationality and the matter is in litigation.
Surprisingly, the PCB chairman said that he wanted to give that person one more chance to clarify his position. He said he gave him a few days to conform to the requirements of PCB’s appointed adjudicator’s office, where the matter is being heard by a retired judge of Lahore High Court.
When a matter is sub judice and an independent adjudicator is hearing it, how could PCB chairman say that he wanted to give that person one more chance? Is it not interference after the Governing Body of PCB has appointed an adjudicator?
It means the PCB itself wants to delay the election of KCCA, converting a minor issue into a legal battle.
The dispute has been created by PCB officials who are pulling the strings form Lahore and Islamabad to hurt the most vibrant elected cricket body of the country. Insiders said that the PCB officials wanted to dominate KCCA affairs just as they were doing the other cricket associations.
They want to delay the electoral process in KCCA and appoint an ad hoc committee to run Karachi’s cricket affairs. Karachi cricket organisers said that KCCA’s teams had been winning in domestic cricket for last three years, which was not acceptable to some “domestic cricket champions” sitting in the PCB. They are using the PCB chairman’s power to disrupt Karachi’s cricket and stop the city’s successes, they added.
It may be noted here that KCCA had won several domestic cricket events under the leadership of Prof Ijaz Farooqui. Karachi won PCB under-16 national cricket championship for three consecutive years, under-19 championship for two years, both finalists of National T20 championship were teams of Karachi, and Karachi’s was the only regional team to qualify for Quaid-e-Azam Trophy last year.
Local organisers said the PCB did not want to hold PSL matches in Karachi but it was compelled to go for it because the law enforcement institutions of the country had established peace in the city and the PCB chiefs’ statements were belying their efforts.
“When international cricket matches are organised in Karachi and the city is without its elected body, what picture will it present to the world?” said a local official.