ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: Millions of viewers turning on their television sets on Saturday to watch the first one-day International between Pakistan and New Zealand were stunned because of a complete blackout of the match.

A continuing row between the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) and the Dubai-based satellite channel over the telecasting rights left viewers fuming.

“Officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should be taken to task for awarding rights to a channel still in its infancy,” Haseeb Saulat, a bank executive said. “Why are we being made to suffer because of this row,” he asked.

It is said to be the first time since 1967 that a home series is not being beamed live. And the writing had been on the wall even before the New Zealanders arrived. Reports in the media about the prevailing confusion in the run-up to the series were perhaps not taken seriously by official quarters.

“I just cannot believe what on earth has happened to the much-trumpeted series, where’s all the action that had been promised to us,” said school-going Haider Bukhari.

The offices of Dawn in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore were inundated with phone calls from fans giving vent to their feelings following the blackout. Most of them blamed the PCB for having taken a wrong step in the first place.

With no live pictures on the first day and the fate of the remaining matches uncertain, some of the viewers appealed to the PCB Patron, Gen Pervez Musharraf to intervene in a matter that they said was “very important”.