Bukhari slams selectors for ignoring Karachi’s players

KARACHI: Prof Siraj-ul-Islam Bukhari, who held top slots in the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) for three and a half decades, has strongly protested at the omission of deserving cricketers from Karachi in the national squad announced for the home series of One-day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe.

Talking to ‘The News’ here on Saturday, Bukhari said that not a single player from Karachi was included in the 22-member squad which was unprecedented. “It’s for the first time in the history of Pakistan cricket that such biased and prejudiced treatment has been meted out to cricketers of Karachi, having a population of more than 25 million, which has given outstanding players to the country,” he remarked.

He was critical of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for ignoring the cricketers from Karachi and appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is also the Patron in Chief of the PCB, to hold an enquiry for what he described as step motherly and biased action.

He pointed out that the non-inclusion of Danish Aziz, who came up with exceptional performances in the recently held National T20 cricket tournament in which he earned Man of the Match award two times, was unjust.

He said the selectors also ignored Hassan Khan, Azam Khan, Khurram Manzoor and Sohail Khan who performed consistently in the tournament.