Customs make final on net run-rate
Pakistan Customs have qualified for the the Patron's Trophy Grade-I Cricket Championship final on net run-rate
Khalid H. Khan
04-Apr-2001
Pakistan Customs have qualified for the the Patron's Trophy Grade-I
Cricket Championship final on net run-rate.
Seven-time champions Habib Bank would have made it to the April 7-11
final against National Bank had the tournament been run on the rules
which were in operation until last season. In the league fixture,
Habib Bank had got the better of Customs here at National Stadium
earlier in the season.
Both Customs and Habib Bank finished with identical figures in the
final standings. However, Customs went through with a superior net run
rate (+0.52) against +0.07 achieved by the bankers, according to the
new playing conditions.
Both teams, as were four other sides, were also docked two points each
for not submitting the captains' report on the umpires - a ritual that
has nowadays become a sort of joke because nobody in the Pakistan
Cricket Board (PCB) bothers to go through and then act accordingly.
The person responsible for running domestic cricket in the board is
least bothered about informing the departments where about their
teams' progress at the end of each round.
Only the other day, the incharge of a sports department was able to
get hold of the points table which was compiled at the end of sixth
round of matches. Before that the PCB had not obliged them (the
departments) with the points table at conclusion of each round - a
practice that was meticulously carried out in the past.
Whenever a department official tried to contact the PCB, he only got a
curt reply, "find out from the newspapers!"
"What is the cricket board for?," an irritated chief of a sports
department asked. "Whenever we got in touch with the PCB headquarters
in Lahore to inquire about a certain issue we got a negative answer."
This is not the end of the story. The PCB has yet to send the draws of
the one-day tournament, which is scheduled to be staged later this
month, to the departmental outfits.