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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) were still awaiting clearance from Karachi City Government before starting development work on six stadia.

According to information, governor Sindh Mohammadmian Soomro had sent the Memorandum of Understanding with Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on Aug 13, the day KMC was dissolved.

Since then, the file is being sent from one office to another as the City Government was undecided whether Nazim or the DCO was the competent authority to sign the MOU and complete the formality.

The PCB had agreed upon doing development work on the request of the KCCA stadium. The KCCA had highlighted six grounds which were recommended by its seven zones.

The identified stadia include: `B' Area, Liaquatabad (Zone I), Block 13, F.B Area (Zone II), Sector 5, North Karachi (Zone IV), 37-D Landhi Township (Zone V) and Asifabad Sports Complex (Zone VII).

Besides the six stadia, KGA ground and cricket stadium in German School in Orangi are also to be developed.

According to an estimate, Rs1million will be invested on each of the eight grounds. The basic infrastructure development include grassy outfield and players dressing rooms.

The project will kick off simultaneously at all the venue but only after the completion of legal formalities.

The KCCA officials said they also had forgone its share from the profit of England one-day international last year. They claimed the objective of forfeiting the share from an approximately Rs 9 million was chiefly to contribute in the development work with the PCB and without putting extra burden on the cash-strapped organization. "The objective of the PCB and KCCA is the same - to lift city cricketers from toiling on cemented tracks to turf wickets," KCCA officials said.

Once the stadia are upgraded the KCCA would supervise the maintenance while respective zones would be ordered to hold its zonal competitions on their grounds.

The KCCA further promised to uplift and increase the club cricket activities which have suffered with the increase in veterans cricket which hardly serve any purpose.

Although the PCB and KCCA are moving in the right direction to create facilities for the young cricketers, it is sincerely hoped that the new look grounds don't face the same treatment the PCB ground located within the walls of the National Stadium is facing.

The ground, which was opened in May at an estimated Rs1.6million, has been closed for two months because of "maintenance". However, it is intriguing in the claim is that what type of material while constructing the ground was used which needed to be either replaced or repaired inside five months. Needless to say that in the last five months, only a handful of matches have been played on that ground.

© Dawn