KARACHI: Prominent sports promoter and owner of Omar Associates cricket team Nadeem Omar has expressed his reservations over Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to cut down Karachi’s representation in first-class cricket to just one team instead of two in the newly-formed domestic cricket structure.

In a statement released on Monday, Nadeem lamented that Karachi’s case was not properly fought by the region’s representative in the meeting where the city’s fate was decided along with that of Lahore.

“Despite having the largest population and being the biggest cricket nursery in the country, Karachi has been meted out poor treatment by the PCB in its new structure for domestic cricket,” said Nadeem.

“The Karachi region players are unlikely to get the opportunities to showcase their talent if only one outfit from the metropolis is allowed to compete.”

It should be mentioned here that both Karachi and Lahore will only be allowed to field just one team each in the upcoming regional qualifiers and there is no guarantee that if either team gets relegated next year, the two regions will still have any representation in first-class cricket at all.

“Also, a number of Karachi players will be playing qualifiers for the departments and if those departments failed to qualify, the same set of players will be eligible to play for the region which will deprive many of the young and upcoming players of the required exposure,” Nadeem pointed out.

He stressed that the services of Karachi and Lahore as cricketing nurseries should not be overlooked as they have given lot of great players to Pakistan and that tradition should continue by giving them their fair bit of opportunities and rights.

Published in Dawn ,July 14th, 2015

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