PCB to be given control of grounds

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will soon gain administrative control of stadiums in Rawalpindi and Faisalabad as it gears up to upgrade facilities at the venues for the Champions Trophy in 2008 and the World Cup in 2011.

General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, has apparently given instructions to the relevant authorities that the PCB be given charge of the two stadiums which are suffering from a lack of proper maintenance.

Abbas Zaidi, PCB director, told The News that the president was surprised that the board didn't already have control of the Rawalpindi Stadium and Faisalabad's Iqbal Stadium during a meeting with Shaharyar Khan, chairman PCB, in Islamabad.

"The president was surprised because he thought the PCB had already been given the control of the two stadiums," Zaidi said.

Shaharyar also briefed the president about the two international tournaments Pakistan will host in the future. The president, who is also the Board's patron-in-chief, was pleased with the recent developments and praised the PCB for earning the hosting rights of the two major events.

It was decided during the same meeting that a co-ordination committee would be formed involving top-level government functionaries for the smooth preparations and staging of these events.

The president later met the Pakistan Under-19 squad that won the World Cup in Sri Lanka in February and said he had great expectations from the new crop of Pakistani cricketers. There was praise also for the work done by Wasim Bari, chief selector and Mudassar Nazar, who has just taken over as director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.