LAHORE: The players and officials of all the six provincial cricket associations, especially those who have limited financial resources, are disappointed after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) did not pay them even a single rupees in daily allowance, stipend or travelling expense for participating in the PCB U-16 Cricket Tournament which ended in Rawalpindi on Feb 23.

The six teams which participated are Central Punjab, Southern Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, KP and the Northern. Some players and officials of these teams, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the players and officials of most of the teams came to join their respective sides in Rawalpindi from their native cities at their own cost and most of them also went back from Rawalpindi to their homes at their own cost.

The Central Punjab team’s players were selected from Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad divisions and they reached Rawalpindi from respective areas on their own their expenses. However a PCB’s bus dropped all the teams in Lahore upon return from where they went back to their respective divisions, again on their own expenses.

Similarly, the Southern Punjab team’s players came to join the team in Multan after reaching from Bahawalpur, Khanewal and other cities at their own cost, while the players of the Northern came from Azad Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad at their own expenses.

Moreover, all the players had been advised to join their respective teams with a certified copy of their Covid-19 tests for which the PCB had to reimburse the payment. But so far they has not been paid.

The Sindh team’s boys, however, remained lucky as they had the services of a sponsor who ensured their air travel on the Karachi-Rawalpindi-Karachi sector. However, the players and officials said the PCB did not pay a single rupees for their daily allowances and stipends.

Each player was to receive Rs 10,000 as stipend. The boys had reached Rawalpindi on Feb 6, a day before the start of their training camps and then they participated in the event from Feb 13 to 23.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2021