LAHORE, May 23: The first phase to upgrade the  53  cricket grounds in the country will be completed by July 31.

Chairman  PCB Development Committee, Ramiz Hasan Raja,  admitted that the delay in completing the work had been due to technical reasons.

Ramiz said work could not be started on several grounds because the board faced  problems in settling differences with the owners of the land.

He said that in the next phase the grounds where the  first class matches had been staged would be upgraded.

He  parried certain questions about the poor standard  of  the grounds  in Lahore, a city having seven million  population.  The PCB  included  only one ground, the LCCA, in its project  of  the upgradation, the work on which is still to be completed.