KARACHI: The start of the Haier President’s Gold League One-day Cup on Monday was marred by a walkover and Arabian Sea Country Club (ASCC)’s management’s refusal to let their picturesque cricket ground used by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the limited-overs tournament.

Out of the six scheduled first-round fixtures, the Group-I tie at the UBL Sports Complex culminated in a ‘walkover’ result in favour of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) since their appointed opponents Peshawar Panthers had yet to arrive in the city from upcountry.

But according to well-placed sources, this game is likely to be replayed following an appeal lodged by the Panthers, who say that their scheduled flight from Peshawar to Karachi on Sunday was abruptly cancelled.

The Cricket Committee of the PCB, headed by Shakil Shaikh, will decide whether to stick with the original or have a replay on one of the free days between scheduled fixtures.

But there is another twist to this tale of Panthers’ woes. The PCB reportedly has asked for explanation from the regional team’s officials how come they allowed the players to travel by air when there is provision for train travel only as per the cricket board’s rules.

A Panthers official, on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn that had the team opted to avail the air travel option after gauging the situation. “Had we decided to travel by train, we would have arrived in Karachi late on Sunday night. Then it would have been extremely tough for the players to play the match next [Monday] morning without getting proper sleep and rest. Hence, then we decided to travel by air on Sunday but to our sheer bad luck, the scheduled flight from Peshawar was cancelled,” the official said. “After all, we paid the difference in fares [from train to air] from our own pockets for a convenient mode of travel.”

Meanwhile, the ASCC has decided in principle not to let PCB hold their matches at its premises in protest over contentious shifting of two scheduled Gold League matches of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship late last year.

In a letter addressed to the PCB chairman, Shaharyar Mohammad Khan, ASCC secretary Syed Kamran Jawed has expressed disappointment after the unilateral shifting of the said two matches to National Stadium and Southend Club Ground, respectively.

“Whereas the ASCC ground is an approved [PCB] venue and is entitled to at least two or three matches every season, we therefore feel justified to record our grievance at this last-minute change of venue which unnecessarily

got noticed by the electronic/print media and was viewed as an attempt to malign the reputation of the top class facilities/ match playing conditions at the ASCC,” the letter says.

“We are of the opinion that the commercial interest of the Club has been compromised by this incident and would like to inform the PCB to delete ASCC form its list of approved cricketing venues unless these machinations are discontinued in future,” the letter concluded.

The PCB has now decided to play the six games allocated to the ASCC in the original schedule released last week at the Rashid Latif Cricket Academy (RLCA) Ground in Gulberg.

Published in Dawn January 20th , 2015

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