PESHAWAR, March 4: Peshawar District Cricket Association (PDCA) has asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to give representation to the association's members in the organising committee formed for the upcoming series against India.
Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, president of the Peshawar District Cricket Association (PDCA), Asghar Ali Khan said, the association had been totally ignored by the PCB while constituting the regional organising committee for the one day international scheduled for March 19 against India in Peshawar.
Flanked by Abdul Aziz, secretary of the association, he said that at present only PDCA happened to be elected body throughout Pakistan that had won the election conducted under the auspices of the PCB, whereas all the other district associations in the country were non-elected bodies.
The PCB, he said had given representation to the office- bearers of the district bodies in Karachi and Rawalpindi, whereas step-motherly treatment had been meted out to Peshawar.
"The PCB did away with the provincial cricket associations and held elections for the district bodies, but was the rational of the keeping the district associations intact when these are given representation in the regional organising committees," said he.
Association's chief was all praise for the PCB to hold ODI at Peshawar, but said that the inclusion of the PDCA in the regional organising committee would help organise the match in a better way.
Some people, such director sports and others had been included in the regional organising committee for Peshawar's match, who had nothing to do with cricket, he said. According to him, all the previous international matches held in the city under the association, had been a great success.
Mr Khan said that the PDCA had always accorded top priority to merit in the selection of local teams, which was evident from the fact that Peshawar had twice qualified for the final of the Quaid-i-Azamtrophygrade-1 tournament, which it won once and remained runner-up on second occasion.
Not that but Peshawar had won the under-19 grade-1 championship in 2000 under the auspices of PDCA, he said and added that at present, three of the players-Yasir Hamid, Umar Gul and Younus Khan-were part of the national squad.
Besides them, each and every department had Peshawar-based player son its cricket team, which was a tell-tale proof of the professionalism of the members of the association.
It was a matter of deep regret that the local association had not been taken into confidence before organising an international match here, he said. He demanded the PCB's chief Shahrayar M. Khan to include the PDCA's members in the organising committee to remove the prevalent unrest among them and hold the match in a better manners.