PESHAWAR, Feb 25: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has authorised the NWFP Women Cricket Association(WCA) to conduct trials to select women's cricket team for national championship , Rashida Ghaznavi, head of the Women's Sports Directorate and president of WCA told Dawn on Friday.

The PCB, through a letter issued on Feb 24 has authorised the WCA for conducting the trials to be held on Saturday. The interim president Rashida Ghaznavi and general secretary Rahim Bibi were delegated the powers, till the election of new office-bearers, to conduct trials and select the team for the championship being held in Lahore from March 1.

Rahim Bibi had claimed that the trials were held last month by a male official of PCB but they proved a failure as very few girls turned up. "Women players showed reluctance to participate in trials last month because the selecting authority was a male," said Rahim Bibi. The PCB regional development official Fakhar Zaman had blamed the WCA for discouraging female players from coming to the trials.