HYDERABAD, Nov 23: The president of the Hyderabad Regional Cricket Association (RCA), Mir Hyder Talpur, on Sunday reacted strongly against PCB’s decision to downsize lower staff of grounds in Sindh and appealed to the board’s chairman not to deprive Sindh of grounds, rather invests in its cricket infrastructure.

The PCB terminated services of Hyderabad’s regional development manager (RDM) Abdul Hussain Shah and other half a dozen staff of the Niaz Stadium on Sunday.

The low-grade employees who faced the axe included a driver, a peon, a store officer and an accountant.

The peon Azam and driver Abdul Jabbar recently got married and were entirely dependent on PCB’s salaries of Rs8,000 per month. Both were visibly disappointed on the decision.

Mir Hyder Talpur questioned the ‘wisdom’ of the PCB that why the persons were being hired on hefty salary packages on various positions when the board had to save money.

“If PCB plans to save money then why new posts are being created and men are being appointed on high salaries,” he asked.

“There are six grounds in Dadu, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Jacobabad, Khairpur and Larkana while eight are in the pipelines but now these new ones are in jeopardy,” the RCA president told Dawn.

Around five persons are employed for each ground which brings the total number of staff to 30.

“When the staff of these grounds are laid off who will look after them,” he said.

Talpur said it was a good initiative of the PCB to build grounds and that’s why eight more grounds were supposed to be built in districts where no such facilities previously existed.

He added that the work of Kohsar’s ground in Hyderabad was in final stage.

He said the infrastructure of cricket in Sindh should be upgraded and the PCB had already taken a step in that direction.

“It was for the first time that Sindh was given a big investment in the form of cricket grounds so I request to PCB chief Ijaz Butt that this programme should not be rolled back,” he said.

The RCA president urged the PCB chief to invest more in terms of infrastructure and should not deprive Sindh of its existing infrastructure by downsizing the staff.

Meanwhile, PCB general manager Mushtaq Ahmed along with store officer arrived here on Sunday to take charge from RDM Hussain Shah, who hails from Shikarpur and who was accused of nepotism in appointment of various people during his four stints in the board.

He repeatedly denied the charges. However, he had been quite active in handing over the Niaz Stadium to the PCB and development of six grounds in the region.

“Yes I have been relieved of my post. The staff of my office including peon, assistant, store officer and others have also been sacked,” the ousted RDM Abdul Hussain Shah said after handing over the charge to Mushtaq Ahmed, who couldn’t be reached for more details.

Now only curator Nisar Hussain and the staff of Qasimabad Taluka Municipal Administration are available in the ground.

The PCB officials visited the ground and prepared an inventory of all accessories and equipments. Details of accounts from regional account were also obtained.

The Niaz Stadium had been handed over to the PCB in July 2006 by the district government for bringing it at par with other stadiums of the country.