‘Future of curators lies with women’

First batch of field management finishes its term.

KARACHI: As the first batch for cricket field management concludes, National Stadium’s chief curator Ehsaan Arain believes the future of curators lies with women.

The five-month long course was offered for the first time in the country to nine participants, resulting from a collaboration between the  Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Sindh sports ministry’s Youth Development Programme 2010.

“It’s a great opportunity for these individuals as there is a dearth of good field curators in Pakistan,” Arain told The Express Tribune. “I had to train nine participants and I’m glad that all five women were great. They worked harder and now that we have women cricketers doing well in international tournaments like the Asian Games, there is certainly place for women curators in Pakistan.”

According to Qudsia Raja, one of the participants, the students helped Arain in preparing the pitch for the Quaid-i-Azam trophy during the first two months of the programme. Raja was encouraged by that fact that this is the first time that the PCB will have the option to hire women curators.

Meanwhile, another participant, Nayab Malik, said that most women in the programme had post-graduate degrees and were qualified for managerial jobs which she felt was crucial.

“Qualification really matters. I’m not saying our male counterparts are any less capable. Initially the fields were prepared by labourers without any professional curator’s supervision but now Arain and Agha Zahid are the only qualified curators in Pakistan,” said Nayab. “When I tell people that I want to prepare cricket pitches they laugh at me but I know that there is a scope for women curators.”

PCB Director Operations Zakir Khan said that the jobs will depend on the participant’s rankings, but the Sindh sports ministry is considering hiring them for Karachi once the results come out.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2010.