LAHORE, Jan 23: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is likely to take charge of Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad and the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium very soon, a board official disclosed on Tuesday.

“The draft of MoU is being prepared and soon the PCB will sign a deed with the Punjab government to get control of Iqbal Stadium and the Pindi Stadium,” PCB Director Communication, Dr Ahsan Malik told reporters in a weekly press briefing, the first of its kind held at the board's headquarters on Tuesday.

Aaqib Javed, the recently appointed chief coach of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), also attended the briefing. The PCB has already taken charge of the Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar for the next four years.

In the past, hectic efforts were made to get administrative control of the Iqbal Stadium as well as the Pindi Stadium but the Punjab government was reluctant to hand them over to PCB. However, the PCB did manage to get control of Multan Stadium almost two years ago.

Getting control of Pindi Stadium means, the PCB is likely to give up its plan to build own stadium in Islamabad, for which the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had demanded a huge money of Rs 320 million to provide a piece of land on lease, but the PCB was not ready to pay it.

Ahsan added that the PCB has begun the restructuring of its management on the recommendations of a reputed human resource company and several posts have been advertised in the national dailies. The director, however, said the implementation on another report submitted by an audit company was yet to be finalised.

He said the PCB was also expecting it’s patron, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to approve the new constitution of the PCB before Jan 31.

“As soon as the board gets the constitution approved by the patron, it will implement it at once,” he said.

He said some delay had been made in this connection mainly because the Attorney General was in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. “Now the attorney general is back in Pakistan and he has assured the PCB chairman of an early approval of the constitution in order to meet the stipulated deadline,” Ahsan said.