June 15, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

LAHORE, June 14: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to renovate its five stadiums however the task seems pretty difficult as completion of the construction work at the venues doesn’t look achievable due to Pakistan cricket’s hectic international schedule, starting from Sept 25, 2007 to continue till October 2008.

The Gaddafi Stadium (Lahore), National Stadium (Karachi), Arbab Niaz Stadium (Peshawar), Iqbal Stadium (Faisalabad) and Rawalpindi Stadium, (Rawalpindi) are the five centres that will be renovated.

The PCB, through an advertisement, had asked for pre-qualification for these projects, in haste last week, without considering the hectic international schedule.

The international season starts from Sept 25 with the arrival of the South African squad and the start of the upgrade work at any of the stadiums is not possible before Sept 1.

After hosting South Africa, in September-October the PCB will have five months only, before they host Australia for another home series in March 2008. And later on Pakistan will be staging the Asia Cup in April followed by the ICC Champions Trophy in September.

“Yes, the hectic international schedule is creating some problems for us, but we have to do this (renovation) work as there have always been international contests and if we (just) stick to this factor, then the work will not be possible afterwards in future, too,” PCB’s Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi told Dawn on Thursday.

Shafqat added that some alternate arrangements would be made to continue the construction work during the matches, adding it was also a fact that work on all the projects could not start simultaneously,” he stated.

However, sources told Dawn the work at Pakistan’s two major centres – Gaddafi Stadium and National Stadium – might not be completed since the main sections of these stadiums like hospitality, media boxes and the PCB’s main offices, are to be upgraded, which is not possible during matches at these venues.

It is relevant to mention here that the board’s planning for the stadiums’ overhaul seems poor as it missed out a good opportunity of construction in the recent past.

Soon after hosting the West Indies late last year, the PCB had eight months to complete the renovation work, at least on important sections of all the stadiums.

According to sources apart from the cost of the five projects being in billions, the PCB had also approved a lavish budget of Rs80 million just to prepare its temporary offices at the Cricket House in Lahore during the refurbishment of the Gaddafi Stadium.