Total chaos prevailed at the stadium where on the first day of the four-day national skills program trials yesterday, some of the youngsters frustrated at not getting a proper chance caused damage to the property, uprooting an entire grilled fence near the national academy.
"Chaos was bound to happen because they were only four practice nets for the trials and the number of players who showed up was beyond expectations," one of the organisers said.
To make matters worse former Test players Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Qadir and Ijaz Ahmed, who were to conduct the trials throughout Pakistan, avoided coming down to the ground to pacify the annoyed youngsters.
Sarfraz also blamed the national stadium authorities for the mismanagement. Sources said the problem arose because of lack of coordination between the PCB and the local Karachi City Cricket Association which was asked by the board to help organise the trials.
"The KCCA caused the confusion by issuing a press release inviting selected players from different zones whereas the PCB issued a release saying the trials were open and anyone could appear in them," one source said.
He said because of lack of communication over timings, the young players started showing up at the ground early in morning even though the official time for starting the trials was in the afternoon.
"With so many youngsters around the stadium management took them into the enclosures of the stadium to pacify them but some of got out of control pushing the coaches and also uprooting chairs," the source said.
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