Ramazan tournaments: KCCA chief asks PCB to withdraw hefty fee order

KARACHI: The president-elect of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), Nadeem Omar, has urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to review its decision of imposing hefty fee for the issuance of permission to hold local tournaments during Ramazan.

In a speech at the Karachi Gymkhana on Monday, he said it was unfair to charge Rs1.5 million for issuing the No Objection Certificate for a local tournament which is to be televised and Rs500,000 for one which is not to be televised. “In other words, it’s an attempt to stop cricket activities in Karachi,” he said.

Having been elected unopposed as the KCCA president, Nadeem advised the PCB to take steps for the promotion of the game instead of going in the other direction.“If the PCB was so much inclined towards keeping a fee for issuing NOC for local tournaments they should have gone for a token amount, not such a huge amount,” he remarked.

The KCCA president did not mince words in stating that the hastily issued directive of the PCB was going to hurt Karachi cricket more than any other centre of the country. “Karachi has been the hub of Ramazan cricket activities for the last three decades and its tournaments have had a class of its own. It will be a pity if these activities are halted due to some actions of the PCB,” Nadeem stated. He said he expected those sitting at PCB headquarters to review this decision.