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Pakistan Customs have qualified for the the Patron's Trophy Grade-I Cricket Championship final on net run-rate.

Seven-time champions Habib Bank would have made it to the April 7-11 final against National Bank had the tournament been run on the rules which were in operation until last season. In the league fixture, Habib Bank had got the better of Customs here at National Stadium earlier in the season.

Both Customs and Habib Bank finished with identical figures in the final standings. However, Customs went through with a superior net run rate (+0.52) against +0.07 achieved by the bankers, according to the new playing conditions.

Both teams, as were four other sides, were also docked two points each for not submitting the captains' report on the umpires - a ritual that has nowadays become a sort of joke because nobody in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) bothers to go through and then act accordingly.

The person responsible for running domestic cricket in the board is least bothered about informing the departments where about their teams' progress at the end of each round.

Only the other day, the incharge of a sports department was able to get hold of the points table which was compiled at the end of sixth round of matches. Before that the PCB had not obliged them (the departments) with the points table at conclusion of each round - a practice that was meticulously carried out in the past.

Whenever a department official tried to contact the PCB, he only got a curt reply, "find out from the newspapers!"

"What is the cricket board for?," an irritated chief of a sports department asked. "Whenever we got in touch with the PCB headquarters in Lahore to inquire about a certain issue we got a negative answer."

This is not the end of the story. The PCB has yet to send the draws of the one-day tournament, which is scheduled to be staged later this month, to the departmental outfits.

© Dawn