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Karachi, Sept 1: The matches involving Karachi in the National Juniors Cup have been postponed until the Sindh High Court gives its judgement, chairman of the Domestic Tournament Monitoring Committee (DTMC), Javed Zaman, said from Lahore.

Zaman, who is also a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad hoc committee, added that the matter relating to Karachi has entered a disputed territory. "Until the situation clears, no matches involving Karachi would be staged," he said.

Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, chairman of the ad hoc committee, deplored the police action against KCCA. He, however, added that he was unaware of the facts since he was in Sri Lanka.

Prof Sirajul Islam Bukhari, secretary of the KCCA, was clearly upset with Wednesday's development when his teams were not allowed to play matches at Lahore and Hyderabad. "It is now an open court battle," he remarked, adding: "We have left everything to the court to see and decide." He said in all this legal battle, cricket and players were the biggest sufferers.

Shafiq Kazmi, manager of the KCCA Blues team, told Dawn from Lahore that he had reached with the squad at the LCCA ground at 8:00 a.m. He, however, said the team was not allowed to enter the ground and a notice had been placed outside it saying that the match has been postponed on the instructions of Javed Zaman.

He said manager of the LCCA team, Sanaullah, refused the team to enter the ground while his own team was training for the match. He added that he approached Javed Zaman at the Gaddafi Stadium where he was verbally told that the match has been cancelled. He said when he asked Zaman to give it in writing, he replied: "You have been told that the match is postponed, now go. You will not get anything in writing."

Kazmi stated that when he returned to the LCCA ground at 10:40 a.m. the match referee (Shafiq Ahmad) and the two umpires had left and the team was allowed to enter the stadium. "But the grounds man had watered the pitch and the outfield which was in perfect condition when we had arrived earlier in the morning," he said.

Prof Bukhari stated that he has instructed its team to stay back in Lahore and play practice matches against local sides. He said the team would proceed to Rawalpindi on Sept 6 for the scheduled Sept 7 match against Rawalpindi.

The players are deeply hurt. They had reached Lahore late Tuesday evening after travelling to Hyderabad, then Bahawalpur before reaching Lahore. They took the most difficult route to Lahore for the match only to be denied their right by the concerned official, he said.

Bukhari, however, said the PCB has denied KCCA the right to play in the tournament despite the fact that the SHC had said in a judgment last month that no further action would be taken against the association.

Javed Zaman said he and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman would be appearing in the Sept 6 hearing. He said they had been preparing the case and would try to get a clarification from the honourable court of its decision.