SWAT: Young cricketers along with coaches rejected the selection of players for Grade 2 level by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and blamed the selection team of ignoring merit.
They alleged the players selection was based on favoritism and nepotism, which is unfair.
To give vent to their anger against the alleged nepotism on the part of the PCB coaches, a large number of senior cricketers and dozens of local coaches flanked by young players staged a protest in front of Swat Press Club here on Sunday.
The protesting players were carrying banners inscribed with the slogans against the selection and also chanted slogans against the three coaches who conducted the trials.
Rahmat Ali, a seniour cricketer from Mingora, said that for trials of Grade 2 level of domestic cricket, the PCB sent two coaches from Peshawar and one coach from Swat, adding that these coaches, however, selected “incompetent” players and ignored highly talented youngsters despite being eligible, adding that the selection team violated all the PCB rules and regulations.
He said that one of the players even did not appear in the trials and two others did not play in the City Cricket Association (CCA) tournament, which were sheer violations of the PCB rules for selection.
The young players said on the occasion that the coaches did injustice to them. Hamza Khan, an under 19 player, said that he has shown good performance in the CCA tournament and he had also played in the Pakistan Under 19 team but the selection committee selected incompetent players and ignored him.
They demanded the PCB to carry out an inquiry into the injustice and ensure merit to give the deserving players their rights and produce talented players for the country.
It is important to mention here that the PCB conducts trials at different times for the selection of talented young players for domestic cricket.
