Domestic cricket season might get rescheduled

KARACHI: All eyes of cricket fraternity, including the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials, are on the Lahore High Court’s next hearing which is scheduled on August 27 (tomorrow).

The court last week suspended the amendments made to the PCB constitution. The petitioners — Munir Ahmed and Ahmed Nawaz — contended that the amendments were brought in the constitution without the approval of the PCB’s board of governors.

PCB high-ups have remained silent and have not issued any details about the timing of new domestic cricket season. No one in the PCB media department was willing to talk about the matter when ‘The News’ sought the board’s stance.

Sources said the new season was supposed to start from the second week of September. If there was no verdict in the next hearing, the start of the domestic season might be delayed. Under the new domestic format, there are to be only six teams in first class cricket, all representing regions. The PCB was busy making the six regional teams before the LHC order. Under the old system, there were 16 associations as well as several departments.

The cricketers employed by departments and their officials would not only be deprived of participation in the first class cricket but they could also lose their jobs if the new domestic format were to be implemented.

Former greats of the game such as Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir have opposed the new domestic format. Those who favour the new domestic cricket format said that some people were trying to stop its implementation because it would hurt their interests.

PCB high-ups have said that they want the Board to be an institution where everything is conducted according to merit and under the constitution. The petitioners claimed that the amendments pushed elected people against the wall and allowed some people to run the board’s affairs in a dictatorial manner.

The new regulations were supposed to change the composition of the BoG to include three members who are presidents of the cricket associations (on a rotation basis), two members nominated by the patron, four independent members, including at least one female member, the chief executive of the PCB, and federal secretary of the Ministry of IPC as ex-officio (non-voting) member.