KARACHI: The setting up of the national women’s cricket team camp for the upcoming tour of the West Indies and USA at Karachi’s Southend Club is an inexplicable and surprising decision from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) since the Board would have easily saved millions of rupees in travelling and lodging costs had the same had been set up in Lahore.

As many as sixteen of the twenty participating girls travelled all the way from Punjab to Karachi for the camp which began on Tuesday and are being provided boarding and lodging facilities at the expensive club premises which is surely costing the PCB a packet.

On the other hand, had the camp been set up in Lahore, it would have only required the three girls residing in Karachi to fly over for the camp and it would have saved the cash-strapped PCB a lot of money and effort.

It would have been much wiser if anyone among captain Sana Mir, coach Mohtashim Rasheed, Manager Ayesha Ashar or selector Farrukh Zaman had advised the board to set up the camp in Lahore for sheer logic and logistics of it.

One wonders who stands to benefit from such illogical decisions in times when the PCB is taking steps such as right-sizing to cut costs and is trying to sell off the regions to independent sponsors in order to rid itself of the growing financial burden.

The matters of women’s cricket are becoming controversial by the day for the manner in which things are being run there.

Criticism has come from many quarters regarding the biased selection policies of Captain Sana Mir and lone selector Farrukh Zaman who are allegedly indulging in favouritism and are clearly doing favours to girls representing the Zarai Tarraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) team while leaving out some really deserving players.

Pakistan team is scheduled to tour the West Indies from Octo 14 to Nov 2, 2015 for four One-day Internationals (ODIs) and three T20 Internationals.

On their way back from the Caribbean, Pakistan women’s team will visit the United States to play two friendly T20 matches in the USA.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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