RAWALPINDI, April 1: The start of the Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 Cup final between Sialkot Stallions and Karachi Dolphins at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Sunday was delayed by an hour due to the staging of a musical concert that took many by surprise since it was originally not part of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) plans on the last day of the competition.

The game was formerly slated to begin at 7:00pm as per the tournament schedule circulated to the media about two weeks ago.

Those present in the media centre on Saturday night were unaware of this development but were stumped by the sponsor’s advertisement published in most of Sunday’s newspapers which, of course, was prepared late on Saturday after the Stallions defeated Peshawar Panthers in the second semi-final.

The ad mentioned the teams contesting the tournament decider along with the revised starting time of the game which was at around 8:00pm instead of 7.00pm

A senior representative of the PCB’s domestic cricket put the entire blame on the cricket board’s media department, saying that it should have duly informed the reporters in the media centre of the late plans to hold the concert.

When Shakeel Khan, the PCB’s public relations officer was approached to explain this mishap on part of the Board’s media department, he appeared dumbstruck since he had no prior knowledge about it.

However, Nadeem Sarwar, the general manager PCB media, later admitted to Dawn that it was his own fault since he had been informed by the officials concerned of the eleventh hour change of plans but could not convery it to the media.

Meanwhile, during the course of the week several attempts were made to make the PCB hierarchy allow accessibility for the media to interview new head coach Dav Whatmore but to no avail.

While Whatmore was present at the stadium throughout the event along with national side’s fielding coach Julian Fountain, the PCB refused to budge from its stance while saying that it was a ‘policy decision’ of the board of not introducing Whatmore to the media here.