The last week, the annual general body meeting of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was held in Lahore. Traditionally, the routine meeting, held once a year, is not a PCB’s constitutional requirement. In a way, the meeting is insignificant. This time, the cricket circles raised eyebrows at the three resolutions, of them two of vital nature, unanimously passed at the meeting. The first one paid tribute to the services of outgoing PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, who was also presiding over the general body meeting. The other moves stated that Najam Sethi be appointed the next PCB chairman by Patron of the Board Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and that Pride of Performance Award be awarded to him for successful final of the second Pakistan Super League in Lahore on March 5.

Data on the annual general body meetings show that the ceremonious event is not for the passage of such resolutions. Once, the body passed a resolution, way back in the 50s, requesting the president of Pakistan to be the patron of the board.

After the passage of the 18th amendment, the prime minister is holding the office of the board patron. This move is controversial as only the constitutional roles of the president to appoint different departments head was transferred to the prime minister under the 18th amendment. The post of the PCB head is not a constitutional one, so it does not invoke the 18th amendment. This point has not been raised at any court of law.

In the meeting, outgoing Test captain Misbahul Haq was also to receive the Imtiaz Ahmad Spirit of the Cricket Trophy for his memorable services for the Pakistan cricket. This programme was, however, cancelled.

The PCB will hold another function to honour Mr Haq, Younus Khan and most probably Shahid Afridi, as the trio has called it a day from the international cricket.

Domestic referees, umpires, cricketers, groundsmen and others received awards at the meeting for doing outstanding jobs in 2016-17.

Those who received Rs300,000 awards are: best player of the year (blind) Badar Munir, best player of the year (deaf and dumb) Zaka Ahmed Qureshi, best player of the year (disable) retired Maj Hasnain Alam, best woman player of the year Asmavia Iqbal and outstanding player of domestic season of 2016-2017 Muhammad Abbas.

Best umpire of the year Shozab Raza was awarded Rs200,000, best match-referee of the year Muhammad Anees Rs200,000, best scorer of the year Najamus Saeed Rs100,000, best curator of the year Niamat Ali Rs100,000 and best coach of domestic cricket season of 2016-2017 Azam Khan Rs100,000.

This week, the Pakistan hockey team left Lahore for London to participate in the World Hockey League to be held there from June 15 to 25. The Pakistan team held its training camp in Lahore and also played some practice matches against the different string of the Pakistan Hockey Federation after failing to get any international matches. It is interesting to note that the England will remain in highlight for both the cricket and the hockey in June. The Pakistan cricket team is already in Birmingham where it will play the ICC Champions Trophy, starting from June 1. So, Pakistani and Indians fans will watch their cricket and hockey teams in action. While Pakistan will play India in the Champions Trophy on June 5 at Birmingham, the clash of the titans in hockey will be held in London on June 16.

The World Hockey League is an opportunity for 11 teams, including Pakistan, to qualify for the next year World Cup to be held in India. The next chance for Pakistan is only to win the Asia Cup, being held in September-October, otherwise, it will again fail to qualify for the mega event. Pakistan also failed to qualify for the last World Cup.

This last week, a delegation of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, headed by chairman Atif Mashal, visited Lahore and signed MoUs with the PCB. Both cricket boards agreed to start bilateral series at all age groups levels. They will play one T20 match each in Afghanistan and Pakistan in July. However, the PCB needs an approval from the government of Pakistan before going to play in Kabul as both neighbouring countries do not exemplary political relations at the moment.

The Punjab Cycling Association held an event here in the last week. Both girls and boys participated in the event.

The students from the Lahore College University and Imperial University participated in a great number.

The honour went to Lahore Blues, which won the main trophy with 47 points, followed by Imperial University, which grabbed 36 points. Lahore Whites remained third with 18 points.

While men participated in the newly introduced cycling event of Keirin race in which Aaqib Ali of the Lahore Blues stood first. The team sprint event for the girls was won by Alvina, Amna, Haram of the Lahore Blues.

“We want to participate in more cycling events but unfortunately there is a dearth of such events in Pakistan,” Aaqib said.

Alvina said Pakistan had a good number of potential cyclists, who only wanted exposure to excel at the international level.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2017