Pakistan: Islamabad cricket body's protest to board (23 Aug 1997)

23 August 1997

Islamabad cricket body's protest to board

By Our Sports Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: The Secretary Islamabad Cricket Association, Jawadul Hassan has again challenged the decision of Pakistan Cricket Board to include Islamabad under-19 team in Grade-II despite an ex-parte decision taken in favour of ICA against LCCA which promoted the capital to Grade-I last year .

Ironically, the decision held void for ten months since Sept 20, 1996, was suddenly reversed by the cricket board authorities on July 25, 1997, it was learnt.

The ICA has been engaged in appeals since then. In an appeal to chairman Pakistan Cricket Board, on Friday, the Secretary ICA protested against the decision to relegate ICA. He said that the decision was not based on facts and was contrary to PCB document. It was learnt that on July 15, 1997, the Chief Executive, PCB, directed ICA to deposit an amount of Rs 5,000 as fee for participation in the under-19 Grade-I championships. After ICA had deposited the amount, a second letter dated July 25, 1997, informed ICA that they have been relegated to Grade-II.

"In reply to the letter I wrote to the chief executive PCB and clearly mentioned the facts along with the rules and clauses," Jawad said. However, on Aug 6, Khalid Hassan, member PCB rules committee informed ICA that the ex-parte decision taken has been set aside. The Secretary, ICA, says that the decision of Local Tournament Monitoring Committee was taken on Sept 20, 1996 after providing 48 hours to the opponents to produce record for the player under protest. The appeal to chairman PCB also mentions that since the PCB is empowered to hear and decide any case, if under Clause 34 an appeal is lodged. "If the LCCA had appealed to PCB after depositing Rs 2,000 then PCB was required to intimate ICA, being a party of the case and whatever the decision was also required to be taken in our presence, but this was not done. In fact the decision taken by PCB was not intimated to us which took away the right to appeal in the matter," the Secretary explained.

It was stated that full opportunity was given to manager, LCCA, by LTMC, requesting him to provide all documents as per Clause 29-C, failing which an ex-parte decision was taken as provided in the same clause. The Secretary, ICA, said that it was highly discriminatory that after relegating Islamabad to Grade-II, the team has been placed in Pool-C and the venues fixed nearest to the city are Thatta and Larkana. "This means that we have to travel to Hyderabad and from there to Thatta which is further three hours away and then to Larkana which taken around eight hours."

In the Junior Cup Grade-II schedule 1997-98, Islamabad will open its campaign in pool-C against Sukkur, on Sept 1-3, at Thatta. They are scheduled to play the second fixture against Larkana at Larkana Police Ground on Sept 5-7. "Schedule of a number of other teams does not show suchunconcern as the Frontier and Sargodha are playing in their own region etc," the secretary said.

In the letter to PCB chairman, the secretary has requested and prayed that ICA team may not be relegated as already done in Patron Trophy Grade-I and Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-I.

Meanwhile, in a letter to chief executive PCB, ICA has requested some changes in Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-I matches. According to the draws Islamabad will be required to make two trips to Karachi to play against KCCA (Whites) and KCCA (Blues) on November 7-10 and December 5-8, while both the teams are travelling to Rawalpindi to play against RDCA. The secretary ICA has requested that at least one match of any Karachi team may be fixed at Islamabad or ICA may be given an opportunity to play both the matches at Karachi in one trip to avoid an extra trip besides disturbance to players and financial burden on association.

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)