Pakistan Cricket Board clarifies a report appearing in a local English newspaper "The News" whose contents and assumptions are based on incorrect or biased information. The match at Bahawalpur was scheduled at 1000 hours and not at 0930 hours as reported in the above report. The umpire for all matches for Grade-I and Grade-II are detailed by Cricket Management Committee well before the schedule as per merit list provided by National Umpiring Council separately for Grade-I and Grade-II. In case replacement is required the umpires are posted according to merit and keeping in view their availability, by CMC and not by any individual / official of PCB.

The report that Athar Zaidi was detailed as an umpire in the match is incorrect; in fact Sadiq Mohammad was posted as umpire in Bahawalpur. Athar Zaidi was never detailed. Due to non-availability of Sadiq Mohammad, Akbar Khan was announced to Umpire the match at Bahawalpur. However, due to some reasons beyond the control of Akbar Khan he could not reach the match venue. As soon as the Chairman CMC was informed by the match referee, Chairman CMC informed PCB officials and a local umpire was arranged as per rules to stand in the match till arrival of Akbar Khan and the match started as per scheduled. Akbar Khan was informed, who took over the match on 27th January 2002.


Khalid Butt
Media Manager
January 28, 2002

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