August 21, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 18, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 20: Work on nine pitches at the Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium has been completed well before the Inter-Region Under-19 One-Day Tournament which will be commencing across the country from 27th of this month.

Regional Development Manager, Peshawar Major (Retd) Shoaibuddin on Wednesday said that work on nine pitches has been completed and the ground is ready for any national or international level cricket.

A signing of MoU between PCB-NWFP government is also in the pipeline for handing over the charge of the stadium to the board to develop it according to ICC wishes, he said.

“We are only waiting for the NWFP Sports Minister Syed Aqil Shah to finalise ways and means for the MoU,” he said.

A 9-member team of curators and ground staff, led by head curator Riaz, fully upgraded the pitches in a very short span of time.

The inspection team, led by PCB chief curator Agha Zahid, will also be coming in a day or two for final approval of the pitches.

Lahore Ravi will be facing host Peshawar in the first match of Inter-region contest on Aug 27 followed by Karachi Whites-Peshawar match (Sept 3), Peshawar-Islamabad tie (Sept 10) and Peshawar-Abbottabad game (Oct 16).

The stadium has hosted seventeen ODIs since 1984 and seven Test matches and has a seating capacity of 20,000.—APP