LAHORE – The Pakistan Cricket Board has directed the Lahore City Cricket Association to hold scrutiny of club and disband dysfunctional clubs. There is also a general feeling among the club players that the directives have been issued to reduce the number of clubs from 134 to 80 because this would benefit certain officials.
Some officials of local clubs believe that if the scrutiny is done on merit, some LCCA members would lose their authority because they are running bogus clubs.
And transparency can only be ensured if the scrutiny is carried out through independent sources or persons who are not influenced by anyone.
An official of a club in Dharampura area said that the PCB does not have any right to hold the scrutiny of the clubs because it did not give any annual grant to them and so is the case with the LCCA.
He further stated that areas like Dharampura, Garishahu, Mughalpura and Baghbanpura have grown too congested for the clubs to hold regular nets but still the players of these areas play. He said that all the clubs are run on self-help basis and the PCB and the LCCA have never bothered to support them. Another official said that earlier the administrators’ focus remained on Iqbal Park when major cricketers were produced by clubs like Lahore Gymkhana, Ludhiana Gymkhana, Universal Club, P and T Gymkhana, Shaheen Club, Prince Club, Krishan Nagar Gymkhana, Islampura Eaglets where people like Azhar Zaidi, Mohammad Rashid and Aslam Taya groomed the players and now the focus is being shifted to Model Town localities, where cricket was once introduced by former first class cricketer Tahir Shah.
He also pointed to three clubs of Ijaz Butt – Service Colts, Gulberg Eaglets and Service Club – two of these are non existent and the third is departmental team.
He said that if there is a need of scrutiny then the PCB should out the practice in its offices where millions of rupees are being wasted on travel expenses.
