'Karachi players deliberately ignored'

The secretary of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), Ijaz Farooqui, has accused the PCB of deliberately neglecting players from Karachi when selecting the national team. "They have used different ways to overlook them and discard those already in the national team," he told reporters.

The KCCA had complained about the non-selection of Karachi players like wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed, Danish Kaneria, Khurram Manzoor, Faisal Iqbal and Mohammad Sami - each of whom has represented Pakistan - among others. "Sarfraz did so well and we all were thinking that he will be automatically selected for the longer format but shockingly Mohammad Salman was picked up [for the West Indies tour]," Farooqui said.

The PCB issued a show-cause notice to Farooqui over his complaints but he was undeterred. "We will continue to raise our voices in order to provide justice to our players. We wrote letters to the PCB about our reservations over the selection but the board did not pay any attention on the issue, which has forced us to come out on the roads and protest."

As far as Pakistan cricket's problems in the recent past are concerned, Farooqui held what he called the "dictatorship" of Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, responsible for it. "Our cricket has suffered because of one man's dictatorship. Once the dictatorship starts objectivity ends."