ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: More Cricket Stadiums would be established in Balochistan to promote the game in the province, the Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada told Senate on Friday.
While replying to various questions during question hour in the Upper House, Pirzada said law and order situation had significantly improved in Balochistan province and there was a dire need to promote sport activities.
The minister said the Country’s sport system had been set up at regional and district levels adding usually the districts organizations organized various tournaments.
To another question, the minister said a four member Review Committee was set up with Naushad Ali (Test Cricketer) as the Chairman to evaluate and assess national cricket team failure in World Cup 2003.
Pirzada said the Committee recommended that the regions should be formed along with some additional districts to be tagged in with a particular region based on the geographical locations.
Riaz Pirzada said in light of recommendations of the Committee, 10 regions were set up which were Quetta, Karachi, Hyderabad, Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Sialkot regions.
The minister said the regional cricket associations were responsible to promote, develop, regulate and maintain general control of cricket in the respective regions.
Moreover, the minister said hockey players were sent abroad for training in order to revive past glory.
Pirzada said football was also a popular game in the Country and the players were performing well. He said various cases related to football were pending before the courts and efforts were being made to follow FIFA rules.