Mohsin Ali, Sports Editor –
ISLAMABAD, (TLTP): Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) seems in no mood to let cricket flourish in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, as the Board for the second consecutive year has fixed no cricket match in the grounds of Islamabad.
The PCB has released the schedule of this year’s domestic season, including awarding national tournaments, and once again Islamabad cricket grounds are overlooked. The PCB also did not award even a single first class match in the last season in Islamabad grounds.
The capital cricket grounds are well-known not only to local cricketers, but international players also are always full of praise for these state of the art venues, which produced a number of players, who had not only represented Pakistan but also played in countless leagues.
The capital venues, which in the past had shouldered the burden of almost 60 percent of domestic cricket, for the very first time in first class cricket were completely ignored by the PCB and were not awarded even a single first class match in the last season and now again the PCB is all set to repeat the same feat this year as well.
The ICC constitution clearly says that no discrimination will be tolerated against respective regions; however, the PCB violating all the norms, rules and regulations awarded new season matches and tournaments to Multan, Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad, and did not consider awarding first class matches to Islamabad Diamond Cricket Ground, which is the home of a number of world class level players like Babar Azam, Imad Wasim, Sohail Tanveer, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Aamir, Muhammad Nawaz, Hammad Azam, Awais Zia, Umer Amin, Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Ali Imran, Zohaib Ahmed, Raza Hassan and others.
In the past, Prime Minister Imran Khan had himself lauded not only Diamond ground, but also promised when his government will be in the centre, he will construct cricket grounds keeping in mind Diamond model.
But all his tall claims have failed to meet reality so far. It is high time for the PM, who is also the Patron-in-Chief of PCB, to take action and ensure that Islamabad cricket grounds must not be deprived of their right of hosting Qauid-e-Azam Trophy matches.Rawalpindi and Islamabad cricketers have already suffered and were ignored badly when it came to represent the country and if matches are not given to capital grounds, youngsters will completely get depressed and even might stop playing cricket, which would be a huge national loss.
