KARACHI, May 30 President, Pakistan Women's Cricket Control Association (PWCCA) Shaiza Khan has said that the PWCCA went through a lot of hassles and struggle before making their place in international cricket and it certainly was not easy as is alleged by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Women's Wing Chairperson Shireen Javed in a statement.

Speaking to Dawn on Saturday Shaiza, the former skipper of the national women's team, said “I was surprised to read that the 'PWCCA took the short cut...' in order to be recognised. I would like to put the record straight by mentioning that I approached the IWCC for its membership in 1988.”

The best leg-break woman bowler Pakistan ever produced added “I attended a full council meeting of the IWCC in Surrey, UK, as an observer during the 5th Women's Cricket World Cup in 1993 where I moved Pakistan's application to become a member of the IWCC. It was accepted even in principle after investigating my cricketing background. I started playing in England for Winchmore Hill Cricket Club in 1981 and played for Middlesex County later.”

Shaiza explained “It was one of the main requirements of the IWCC that I take residence in Pakistan for one year. At that point I was a student at University of Leeds and had also become the first non-British captain of the university's women's cricket team. It was while studying for my PhD in 1995 that I received a letter from the IWCC in which they showed their satisfaction over my credentials and found me able enough to run the affairs of women's cricket in Pakistan. I was also allowed to work towards participating in the 1997 World Cup in India. I returned to Pakistan immediately and started work on registering the PWCCA as well as organising the domestic structure to select a national team from all over Pakistan.”

Shaiza Khan got advise from the PCB on how to set up a national board. The PCB issued a letter to the IWCC in 1996, advising that the PWCCA had fulfilled all the requirements as per its constitution and was the sole governing body for women's cricket in Pakistan and PWCCA was awarded the associate membership of the IWCC on September 30, 1996.

Giving the background on their old rivals, the Pakistan Woman's Cricket Association (PWCA), Shaiza says “It was then that the present Women's Wing Chairperson Mrs Shireen Javed and her former advisor Azra Parveen stepped in to write to the IWCC not to accept the PWCCA as members, prompting further investigation by the IWCC while the PWCCA application had to be put on hold.”

But they decided to carry on with membership procedure after Shireen and Azra had nothing to show to the IWCC in order to convince them that they had the right to run women's cricket in Pakistan. “The duo even went to India during the 1997 Women's World Cup to try and get their country's membership cancelled but to no avail,” said Shaiza.

“PWCA is till date an unregistered organisation with no legal standing,” claimed the PWCCA's founding president. “The women's national team currently in Ireland has 80 per cent players groomed by the PWCCA and not a single one having emerged from the 44 cricket clubs Shireen and Azra claimed to have been running during the 2002 Scrutiny,” Shaiza pointed out.

“I have heard that Shireen Javed has started a regional association only yesterday after being served with a notice by the Lahore High Court. If it was left to her, Pakistan would have gone unrepresented even in the 2009 World Cup. It is only due to the efforts of the PWCCA — the pioneers of women's cricket in Pakistan — that she has a team under them today.”

As for Shireen's claim that she had been after PCB's former CEO Majid Khan since the time of the Women's 1997 World Cup to recognise women's cricket as she thought it important to be recognised by one's own country's board first, Shaiza said “Well, it should be noted that the PWCCA got its affiliation after the PCB confirmed to the IWCC that all the credentials were in place back in 1996.”