KARACHI: Pakistan’s international friendly against Afghanistan on Friday will not be beamed live by Pakistan Television (PTV) as domestic cricket takes precedence for the state broadcaster.

With the football match at the Punjab Stadium clashing with the match between Faisalabad Wolves and Wapda in the triangular stage of the President’s Silver League One-day Cup at the Gaddafi Stadium, PTV Sports will telecast the domestic cricket game.

The football match, meanwhile, will not be shown live and instead a recording of the game will be played after the cricket match.

DG Punjab Sports Board cites lack of coordination on PFF’s part

“PTV will broadcast the recording of the Pakistan-Afghanistan match after the Silver League tie is over,” PTV Sports Head Nauman Niaz told Dawn on Thursday. “PTV has a contact with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to run domestic cricket.”

The live coverage of the football match, however, will be shown by a Peshawar-based private channel with Afghan channels taking pictures from it.

Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) marketing consultant Sardar Naveed Haider Khan told Dawn on Thursday that the broadcast by the private channel would be no match to the coverage PTV would’ve provided and Punjab Sports Board (PSB) director-general Usman Anwar blamed the country’s football governing body for lack of coordination.

“It is PTV’s policy to know about upcoming events beforehand,” Usman told Dawn on Thursday. “There was even no coordination with us [SBP] about the game and that they [PFF] would be needing the Punjab Stadium for the match.

“We only got to know about the game a week before and tried our utmost to resolve the broadcasting issue. But the PCB had planned the [cricket] event beforehand and they couldn’t take the match ahead,” he added.

The PCB has a rest day in the tournament on Saturday before Sunday’s Silver League final and Usman confirmed the Wolves-Wapda game couldn’t be moved to a day later.

The PFF said it had informed PTV’s Managing Director Mohammad Malick about the Afghanistan friendly a month before through a letter dated Jan 9. But that letter, a copy of which was obtained by Dawn, states that the friendly would be staged at the Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad.

“There was no coordination with us that the match would not be played at the Jinnah Stadium until a week ago and we had to cancel several events at the Punjab Stadium to accommodate the PFF,” Usman added.

“We’ve asked the PFF to inform us about their events beforehand and they have promised us to do that in the future.”

Sardar Naveed, meanwhile, regretted the fact that an international football match in which Pakistan was taking part was not going to be beamed live by the state broadcaster.

“This is a historic game between the two neighbours,” he said on Thursday. “This is a match which will show to the world that Pakistan is a safe country for international events and it’s unfortunate that it wouldn’t be shown live.”

He cited that foreign teams have not been coming to the country since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009 but this was a chance for everyone involved to show the bright side of the country.

“Football is a game that interests a lot of young people and how can we promote it if games involving the national team aren’t shown live?” Sardar Naveed questioned.

“I’ve had calls over the last two days by football fans regarding the broadcast of the game and the game between Pakistan and Afghanistan interests the world because of the situation in the two countries.

“I request Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif to take notice of this and intervene. As far is PTV Sports is concerned, since they are so interested in only broadcasting cricket, they should rename the channel as PTV Cricket.”

Pakistan are ranked 188th in the FIFA rankings while Afghanistan, the SAFF champions, are ranked at 142. The two teams last met in August 2003 with the Afghans running out 3-0 winners.

Pakistan squad:

Goalkeepers: Saqib Hanif; Ehsanullah; Muzammil Hussain; Defenders: Ehsanullah, Israr, Shahbaz, Mohammad Bilal, Mohammad Touseef, Habib-ur-Rehman, Sanaullah, Mohsin Ali, Shahram Babar; Midfielders: Naveed Ahmed, Mohammad Riaz, Saddam Hussain, Bilawal-ur-Rehman, Mehmood Khan, Mohammad Tahir, Saadullah, Sufyan Asif, Noor Mohammad; Forwards: Hassan Bashir (captain), Mansoor Khan, Mohammad Tahir.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play