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KARACHI: The failure of KCCA tournament committee to allow fast bowlers to wear spikes during local cricket tournaments has been preventing the city from developing quality pacers and solid batsmen.
These days NBP-KCCA Premier Cricket League 2012 is being played at four grounds and ‘The News’ has learnt that only at one ground fast bowlers are allowed to wear spikes.
Last month KCCA high-ups called a meeting of Karachi’s former Test and international cricketers to seek their guidance on how to promote the overall standard of the city’s cricket.
Those who were invited included Tousif Ahmed, Saleem Jafar, Azam Khan, Zafar Ahmed, Ghulam Ali and Mehmood Hamid. One of them suggested allowing fast bowlers to wear spikes in all local cricket matches.
The sources in the local cricket said that those in charge of the grounds have not been allowing pacers to wear spikes despite the directives of KCCA tournament committee.
The chairman KCCA tournament committee Mehtab Ahmed, when contacted, told ‘The News’ that spikes are the lifeline of any fast bowler, so the KCCA tournament committee has always desired the use of spikes.
He admitted that it is a serious concern as far as the progress of Karachi cricket is concerned and “we are trying to resolve this problem”.
He said that observing the same issue KCCA authorities had decided to organise a camp only for grooming fast bowlers.
Mehtab further said that lack of cricket grounds and absence of fast and bouncy wickets are the main reasons behind this problem.
He said it was because of these problems that he had always desired fast development of KCCA’s own cricket stadium.
The chairman tournament committee further said that he would raise the issue in the KCCA meetings and try his best to resolve this issue.
Local cricket organizers, when contacted, said that more than 150 club matches are played at each ground in the city in a year.
Besides, a number of tournament matches are played on these grounds. If spikes were allowed in all these grounds, the wickets would be dug up and the cricketing activities in the city at local level would be affected, they said.
They said that it was a technical issue that could not be addressed by local organisers because they did not have sufficient resources.
They said they did not have trained groundsmen and curators who could prepare hard and bouncy wickets to serve throughout the year. “So we have no option but to stop the use of the spikes,” said an organiser.
It is pertinent to mention here that owing to this ban, fast bowlers are unable to bowl at their full pace because of injury risks.
Their choosing to bowl slow helps batsmen, who then fail to play well in other parts of the country where there are better pitches and grounds.
These days NBP-KCCA Premier Cricket League 2012 is being played at four grounds and ‘The News’ has learnt that only at one ground fast bowlers are allowed to wear spikes.
Last month KCCA high-ups called a meeting of Karachi’s former Test and international cricketers to seek their guidance on how to promote the overall standard of the city’s cricket.
Those who were invited included Tousif Ahmed, Saleem Jafar, Azam Khan, Zafar Ahmed, Ghulam Ali and Mehmood Hamid. One of them suggested allowing fast bowlers to wear spikes in all local cricket matches.
The sources in the local cricket said that those in charge of the grounds have not been allowing pacers to wear spikes despite the directives of KCCA tournament committee.
The chairman KCCA tournament committee Mehtab Ahmed, when contacted, told ‘The News’ that spikes are the lifeline of any fast bowler, so the KCCA tournament committee has always desired the use of spikes.
He admitted that it is a serious concern as far as the progress of Karachi cricket is concerned and “we are trying to resolve this problem”.
He said that observing the same issue KCCA authorities had decided to organise a camp only for grooming fast bowlers.
Mehtab further said that lack of cricket grounds and absence of fast and bouncy wickets are the main reasons behind this problem.
He said it was because of these problems that he had always desired fast development of KCCA’s own cricket stadium.
The chairman tournament committee further said that he would raise the issue in the KCCA meetings and try his best to resolve this issue.
Local cricket organizers, when contacted, said that more than 150 club matches are played at each ground in the city in a year.
Besides, a number of tournament matches are played on these grounds. If spikes were allowed in all these grounds, the wickets would be dug up and the cricketing activities in the city at local level would be affected, they said.
They said that it was a technical issue that could not be addressed by local organisers because they did not have sufficient resources.
They said they did not have trained groundsmen and curators who could prepare hard and bouncy wickets to serve throughout the year. “So we have no option but to stop the use of the spikes,” said an organiser.
It is pertinent to mention here that owing to this ban, fast bowlers are unable to bowl at their full pace because of injury risks.
Their choosing to bowl slow helps batsmen, who then fail to play well in other parts of the country where there are better pitches and grounds.
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