PAKISTANIS have exceptionally high cricket mania, but scheduling international matches in Karachi is simply an act of madness due to lack of infrastructure, poor traffic planning and indifferent attitude of the administration.

How can one even begin to justify the revival of international cricket at the cost of suffering of millions of people due to road-blocks and the resultant traffic logjams, especially, but not exclusively, on the main arterial Sharea Faisal?The worst hit are residential areas around the Natuional Stadium.

We have no ability, capacity, planning and infrastructure to support the luxury of hosting international cricket matches.

The government should first provide basic amenities to the citizens before enjoying cricket.

These are testing times for the people of Karachi due to closed roads leading to jam-packed roads and everything else that goes with such a situation.

The people concerned should reconsider this callous attitude, or arrange traffic management so that people may go to their workplaces and then return to their homes when they have to or want to.

Amjad Iqbal
Karachi

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IT is chaos and turmoil these days for the people of Karachi, as they face massive traffic jams due to some cricket activity in the city. This is wasting millions of rupees every day.

Frustration and anxiety have been causing psychological issues among the people. Owing to security and coronavirus SOPs, there will be hardly any spectator watching the matches between Pakistan and South Africa at the National Stadium. But outside the stadium, hundreds of thousands of people are already wondering what they did wrong to face this kind of music.

The visiting team’s players travel along with security escorts, causing problems for the citizens. Would it not be wise to get a helicopter to airlift the visiting team from their accommodation to the stadium to save the citizens from this nuisance?

Azizur Rahman Shaik
Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2021