KARACHI: Municipal Commissioner Sami Siddiqui has announced that KMC-KCCA under 17 tournament would be a permanent annual feature in December. Addressing a colourful ceremony on the inauguration of the tournament at UBL sports complex on Sunday, he said that KMC could not do much for promotion of sports in the recent past but vowed that his administration would make every effort to organise sports events in the city for the young generation to set an example. The municipal commissioner said that he was delighted that KMC was organising such a big event of cricket for the youth of the city. He said he hoped that this event would benefit young cricketers. He congratulated the Cultural, Sports and Recreation (CSR) department of KMC for organising such a big event across the city, involving 280 players of all seven zones of KCCA. Siddiqui directed the KMC and the KCCA to be vigilant for stopping overage players. KCCA president Prof Ijaz Farooqui said that nobody had imagined that this event would be so appealing and have PCB umpires, referees and scorers. CSR’s senior director Raza Abbas said that KMC was willing to organise such events regularly but due to financial constraints, sports activities had to be curtailed. He vowed that the present administration would organise a number of sports events in various disciplines as various sports infrastructure projects were near completion. KCCA secretary Shafiq Kazmi said that it would be an ideal tournament having handsome amount in prize money. CSR deputy director and KCCA organising secretary Jameel Ahmed stated that KCCA had organised more than 1500 matches without any match fee in just 18 months. He said that the tournament would be played under the PCB rules and regulation with four white balls in each match. Colour kits were distributed among the cricketers on the occasion. Star cricketers Sarfraz Ahmed, Anwer Ali, former cricketers Moin Khan and Sadiq Muhammad were also present on the occasion.
