Academy at NSK once again without director

KARACHI: The Hanif Muhammad High Performance Centre (Cricket Academy) at National Stadium is once again without a head as former Test cricketer Haroon Rasheed has been posted at PCB headquarters in Lahore.

Haroon served as the head of the academy only for a few days. Informed sources said that Haroon was directed by PCB high officials to resume his old position in Lahore as director domestic and women cricket.

The academy, built within the National Stadium premises, took more than seven years in its completion. Then it took a couple of years for it to function properly. The appointment of its director also took many months.

It ran smoothly for a few months when former left-arm spinner Iqbal Qasim was appointed as the head. When he resigned to take up a position at the National Bank of Pakistan and the political scenario of the country changed Haroon was transferred here. He was posted with additional responsibilities of looking after NSK administration and women cricket affairs of Karachi.

But now he has been transferred once again and nobody has been appointed in his place. Due to the absence of the director, the affairs of the academy have been affected badly. The academy not only trains Sindh-based cricketers but also those who are from Balochistan.

Karachi region cricketers while talking to ‘The News’ appealed to the PCB chairman Ehsan Mani to take notice of this “step-motherly treatment” with the Karachi region and appoint a new director at the academy so that they could have all the benefits of its construction. If Haroon Rasheed was so indispensable at PCB’s headquarters in Lahore, what was the need to transfer him to Karachi for a few days here, they said.