Red flag or Not ? | Arbab Niaz Stadium Peshawar Update:
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has undergone a few significant changes on the orders of the incumbent Prime Minister of the Country, Shahbaz Sharif, who has nominated the former chairman Najam Sethi for the position of the head of the Board.
The Prime Minister, who is also the Patron-in-chief of the Board, has given a green signal to Sethi, who will chair the Board as a head of a 14-member committee including former cricketers Shahid Afridi and Sana Mir. After the approval from the Federal Cabinet, the official appointments will be made and the committee will run the affairs of the governing body for 4 months.
In his first press conference, after the news of him taking over the Board was made public, Najam Sethi talked about reviving the constitution of 2014 which will see the comeback of departmental cricket. The 74 year old, answering to a question related to the return of International cricket in Peshawar, said “Peshawar is not a red flag at all. I remember when we were bringing cricket back to Pakistan, the people in Karachi were saying that you will just have matches in Lahore and Multan. I said we will come to Karachi first.”
He further said, “I had the West Indies play three matches in Karachi. There’s no question about going to Peshawar. The stadium is being prepared, and I have received assurance that it will be completed in six months. As soon as it’s ready, we will go and play cricket there.”
For the purpose of information it must be mentioned here that earlier, in his interview, with Sky Sports, the current chair of PCB Ramiz Raja termed Peshawar a ‘Red Flag’ for the foreign cricketers. This controversial remark had Raja srand at the receiving end of criticism by many people, while many demanded an apology from the former cricketer. Javed Afridi, the owner of Peshawar Zalmi, protested silently by not joining his franchise in the PSL 8 Draft in Karachi on 15th of December.
Like all other cricketing venues in Pakistan, Peshawar, too, had to endure the absence of cricket from the country following the unfortunate terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009. However, with the comeback of cricket to the country, people of Peshawar are longing to smell the fragrance of the game in the beautiful air of their city.
Arbab Niaz Stadium, a stadium in Peshawar, which is currently being renovated is very likely to get completed in a few months and if the words stated by the incoming PCB chairman are to be believed, cricket will return here after the culmination of renovation.
