Cricket: LCCA wants ‘active’ role in hosting BD

Association chief wants PCB to involve them in the tour.

KARACHI:

As Pakistan gears up to host Bangladesh for a One-Day International and one Twenty20 later this month, the Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) wants a role in organising the first international series in the country since March 2009.

LCCA President Khawaja Nadeem has said the trend of neglecting the role of the associations should end and requested the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take them onboard for staging the matches.

“The PCB should involve our association,” Nadeem told The Express Tribune. “It’s the return of international cricket in Pakistan and we’re waiting to hear from the PCB.

“There should be a concept of power sharing from which the board and association can benefit. But sadly the associations are sidelined.”

While an official from the Karachi City Cricket Association also backed the notion out forward by the LCCA, a senior PCB official stressed that the entire scenario of hosting international matches has changed dramatically in the last decade but the board was still ‘looking after’ the regional bodies.

“The arrangements made by the associations had been poor in the past and that was what  prompted the PCB to take charge of the hosting rights for all international matches,” said the PCB official.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2012.