September 25, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 27, 1424

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KARACHI, Sept 24: The Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) on Wednesday strongly protested over the exclusion of Karachi from the revised itinerary of the South African series.

Sirajul Islam Bukhari, KCCA’s honorary secretary, said in a statement faxed to Dawn: “It was most unfortunate decision by United Cricket Board of South Africa to have abruptly cancelled the tour of Pakistan at the eleventh hour without consulting the PCB or the ICC.

“Then PCB forwarded a revised itinerary to UCB minus Karachi and Peshawar which they promptly accepted.

“From the revised itinerary proposed by the PCB and hastily accepted by UCB it appears that South African team is not visiting Pakistan but a single province.

“One ODI should have been proposed each at Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta and UCB should have been made to realize that they are touring Pakistan and not just one province,” Bukhari said.

The KCCA official applauded the stance adopted by Kunwar Khalid Younus, a member of the National Assembly from Karachi. “I welcome the most vocal statement followed by a walkout staged by Mr Khalid Kunwar Younus on Tuesday in Islamabad, strongly protesting discrimination by the PCB to deprive the cricket crazy and knowledgeable cricket fans from watching South Africa and Pakistan teams in action.”

Bukhari lodged a strong protest with the PCB, saying, “the KCCA would like to inform the PCB that it should not have proposed and accepted this itinerary and should have kept at least one ODI at Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta. “By accepting to exclude Karachi and Peshawar as an international cricket centre on the insistence of UCB, the PCB has become a party to label these two big centres as no-go areas for international cricket,” Bukhari concluded.