Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif handed over the control of the Women Cricket Ground, Model Town, to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) two years ago to run it for the women cricket activities but the PCB has failed to start any such activity on the ground so far.

The ground was handed over by Mr Sharif at the Gadhafi Stadium to the then PCB chairman Najam Sethi.

A PCB spokesman said they got possession of the ground just seven months before after a lengthy process of documentation and the ground would now be used for the women cricket.

There are reports the PCB could not use the ground because a helipad has been laid there to land the top personalities of the Punjab government or the foreign guests there. However, the PCB spokesman was reluctant to make a comment on it whether the ground was being used as a helipad or not.

The PCB needs a separate women ground to accelerate the women activities as no specific ground for them is available in the country.

It is also learnt the ground may turn a white elephant for the PCB if it decides to use it only for women cricket. The maintenance expenditure of the ground are not less than Rs200,000 per month but as the base of women cricket is not vast in the country, earning money by renting it out for women matches is not possible.

Recently, the PCB set up a two months long training camp at Abbottabad for its national women team, ignoring this ground.

Though the chief minister handed over the ground to Najam Sethi two years ago on paper, it was transferred to the PCB when incumbent PCB Chairman Shaharyar M Khan took over the board.

No one can understand what kind of reasons were behind such a big delay. The ground was constructed by the Punjab Horticulture Authority but it could also fail to run it for women cricket activities. Only the PCB can run this ground but it has to expand women activities for the maximum use of it.

Last week, two Turkish bikers, Taskin Yurdakadim and Polat Ozen, were in Lahore while on their World Tour. After a one-day stay in Lahore they left for Rawalpindi on another leg of their long tour. The Sports Board Punjab hosted a ceremony at the National Hockey Stadium in their honour. Both the Turkish bikers were quite happy over their stay in Lahore, having no fear of security. They had entered Pakistan from Balochistan from Iran.

The arrival of foreign players in Pakistan is not that common because of security fears of the visitors as the country could not organise any big event in the sports of cricket, hockey or football. Only Zimbabwe cricket team toured Pakistan in May this year for a brief tour for which extraordinary security arrangements were made, which also caused inconvenience to the cricket fans.

For the last one year, the Punjab University has brought some improvement in its Sports Department as it various teams earned medals at the Inter-varsity competitions.

In 2013, the Punjab University went down to the 6th position in these competitions as the situation was quite alarming. But the next year, it adopted a comprehensive sports policy under which the admission on sports basis were given. Moreover, the PU also fixed monthly scholarship for its best athletes. Now the PU is looking a serious threat to other universities. Even some small private universities had beaten the PU in the past despite the PU’s vast range of sports facilities and other resources, too. No other university could compete with it in regarding facilities but it failed in the past to keep up its top positions.

Last week, the PU also distributed sports gear to Akhwan Science College, Barki, for playing a vital role in bringing medals in different games in the inter-varsity competitions.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2015

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