PESHAWAR: The people of NWFP were left in the lurch when the scheduled four-day match of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship was shifted to Islamabad due to security reason. The champion was to be played between Peshawar and Islamabad at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium from January 2 to 5 next. The venue would now be Margazar Cricket ground at Islamabad. The change in the venue was effected when the President of RCA Wisal Durrani was kept in dark by the Manager of Peshawar Team Hussain Ali and coach Akhtar Sarfaraz when they painted a grim situation of the law and order in Peshawar. Since Wisal Durrani is in Sukkar for the last one month to attend his father admitted in a hospital for cardiac ailment and knows little about the ground reality, therefore he ordered the shifting of the venue from Peshawar to Islamabad. An official of the match on request anonymity, informed The Frontier Post that decision to this effect was taken soon after the announcement of the operation in Badaber and Khyber Agency, the areas situated on the outskirts of provincial capital Peshawar. He also disclosed that the officials of both Peshawar and Islamabad had sent a request to PCB (domestic cricket management) for shifting of the match from Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium. When President of the Regional Cricket Association Peshawar Region Wisal Durrani, was contacted, he confirmed that the manager of the team Hussain Ali and coach Akhtar Sarfaraz informed him about the curfew and operations in the Badabir and Khyber Agency so he asked them to send a written request to PCB for shifting of the match. “Before shifting of the match, PCB officials also contacted me to ascertain the situation so what the Peshawar team officials told me regarding security situation in provincial capital I passed on the same to PCB,” Wisal added. Wisal said that he was out from Peshawar since Eid-ul-Azah and now is in Sukkar at the moment due to his father illness so what the team officials told me, I conveyed the same to PCB. When asked about the fate of other matches, Wisal said that he would be coming back by January 5 and hopefully the other matches would be played at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium provided the security situation was normalized. He also confirmed that now the match would be played on Saturday (January 3) at Margazar Stadium, Islamabad. “The team officials informed me verbally about the closing of the government school, curfew and operations,” he added. But when asked that the government schools were only closed because of the Moharrum, Wisal said that he was not aware of that. PCB after dissolving Regional General Manager and Regional Development Officers, there was no one to look after the matches scheduled in the provincial capital. No official of the Directorate of Sports or the NWFP Minister for Sports available for comment about the shifting of the scheduled event.
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