Shakeel Shaikh continues to play with cricket

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as expected kept mum on sorry state of affairs of Islamabad Region Cricket Association, where highly powerful Shakil Shaikh, who had well passed his third term as president but still calling all the shots and spoiling the careers of youngsters of not only Islamabad but also Rawalpindi, started the Regional Inter-District U-19 One Day Tournament 2018-2019 and despite PCB chairman Najam Sethi promising to look into the issue and referring the case to Haroon Rasheed, noting done on ground and Shakil started the tournament according to his own rules and regulations, number of youth without any solid reasons, were declared overage, interestingly majority of them cleared after age tests, but were only deprived to stop them playing against his own zone, these tactics were witnessed for last two decades, but no one bothers to provide justice to long-suffering youth of the federal capital, at one end, number o talented youth were never ever considered for regional teams, but on the other hand, Shakil is free to include his sons from not only Islamabad, but from other regions as well, due to his influence and despite pathetic performances form all the three sons of Shakil, who had so far played at different levels, no body moved, PCB is not more than a silent spectator, PCB is very quick to appoint ad hoc in other regions, but despite well over two months passed, Shakil is still working at IRCA President, he is appointing all the officials of his liking, zones were never consulted and there is every possibility, like past, he will manage to get relaxation in rules and secretly appoint himself as president for the 4th term in running, it is high time, PCB Chairman must break silence and appoint impartial ad hoc committee based on persons, who enjoy reputation and conduct free, fair and impartial elections of the region under impartial election commission, it is the one and only solution to all the problems, any further delays, silence form PCB Chairman to act, will further aggravate the situation and questions and fingers will start to raise in Sethi’s direction, PCB must immediately check violations being made by Shakil Shaikh and strict action must be taken, deserving players should be given their due right of playing for their respective zones to ensure free and fair opportunities for all, or else, Shakil must announce there are simply no rules exist and he is free to do whatever he likes to do and stop the drama of conducting so-called tournaments, which are meant to benefit his own clubs and certain individuals.