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KARACHI: The Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) has clarified that it has not changed its stance on delaying the Faysal Bank T20 Cricket Tournament or shifting it to Karachi because of refusal of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to allow Karachi teams to travel to Lahore for practice at an early date.

“The true position is that on Sept 12 and 13 there was no chance of resumption of net practice for T20 Cup due to rains in Karachi owing to which the KCCA wrote to the PCB to allow Karachi teams to travel to Lahore a bit earlier for net practice, but the PCB replied to speak to the chairman who is in England,” KCCA president Sirajul Islam Bukhari said in a statement issued here on Friday.

He said that later on players and their parents started urging the KCCA not to send the team to Lahore because of dengue fever.

“Only then we wrote to the PCB either to delay the T20 for a few days or shift the matches to Karachi or elsewhere where there is no danger of the epidemic.

“Again, the reply was to speak to the chairman who is in England. And after being assured by the Punjab government and due to insistence of the PCB on holding the tournament in Lahore we have agreed to go to Lahore,” the statement added.

However, the KCCA president said that if anything happens to their teams or the media, it will be the responsibility of the PCB.

The KCCA considers the PCB as its parent body, but accusing the KCCA in such a way is also very unfair, he concluded.—APP