CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

Karachi, Sept 9: The Sindh High Court on Thursday constituted a three-member selection committee which will pick two Karachi teams for the ongoing National One-day Championship.

Former captain Hanif Mohammad was appointed chairman of selectors while Jalaluddin and Tauseef Ahmad were named as members.

Justice Rasheed Rizvi has assigned the selectors the task to pick the best players from the two teams each selected by the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) and Karachi's ad hoc committee.

Karachi boys have yet to make an appearance in the National One- day Championship following a dispute between the city officials and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) administrators. The second round matches finish on Friday. Because of the shortage of time, the actual plaint was not listened. It will now be heard on Sept 14.

The chairman of the ad hoc committee Mujeeb-ur-Rehman and member Javed Zaman appeared before the honourable court. They have been ordered to appear on Sept 14 again.

The president of the KCCA Nusrat Azeem on Thursday said he has been offered by Mujeeb-ur-Rehman to meet him in the next couple of days to sort out the problem. "After the court proceedings, I had a brief chat with Mujeeb who has asked me to meet him before Sept 11. I will inform about the meeting on Friday," Azeem said.

Azeem didn't confirm if Mujeeb had sought his help to bail him out of the current situation but admitted that he told the ad hoc committee chief that the decision to suspend the KCCA was unlawful and unconstitutional. "I told him that we had been looking after the interest of cricket for last so many years and he had no right to dismiss us without informing us of the charges on which KCCA was suspended. I also told him in clear words that he should listen to us instead of taking unilateral decisions," he said.

Azeem was unsure whether an out of the court settlement was in the offing. "The outcome of the meeting with Mujeeb should be crucial. But I maintain here that we never wanted to go to the court. We have been pushed into this situation. "All we want is to promote cricket," he said.

PPI adds: Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board ad hoc committee Mujeeb-ur-Rahman said Thursday the decision of forming Under-19 selection committee with mutual consultation of Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), has been taken in the interest of players belonging to Karachi.

"It was not the matter of winning or losing. The Ad hoc Committee has compromised with KCCA, keeping in view the interest of the players belonging to Karachi," Mujeeb told PPI before leaving for Lahore.

A single bench of Sindh High Court comprising Justice Rasheed A. Razvi today constituted a committee in mutual consultation with PCB Ad hoc Committee chairman and KCCA. The committee with ex- Test batsman Hanif Mohanmmad as chairman and former cricketers Tauseef Ahmad and Jalaluddin will choose KCCA teams for the National Under-19 Grade-I cricket championship.

The National Under-19 cricket championship ties involving KCCA, could not be played earlier, owing to tiff between PCB Ad hoc Committee and KCCA, as both had fielded their selected teams for the junior events.

Mujeeb said matches of the National junior event had begun from September 1, it was youngsters belonging to Karachi who were suffering as KCCA could not play single match of championship. "It is just the interest of the game that we want to develop in the country and Karachi as well. And the formation of the committee is the step taken in the right direction so that sport could prosper in Karachi also," he said.

The chairman said the SHC judge, Justice Rasheed A. Razvi himself proposed the name of former Test batsman Hanif Mohammad as chairman of the committee for selecting KCCA teams while the rest of the two members, ex-Test bowlers Tauseef Ahmad and Jalaluddin were nominated as memebrs with mutual consultation.