Lahore: In a gaffe, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 for a left-arm Pakistani pacer, who bagged five wickets in the semifinal of the national one-day championship here, only to retract the prize saying it was meant for the final match.
At the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday, Zia-ul-Haq bagged a five-wicket haul to lead National Bank to victory and senior PCB official's announced the cash prize for the young pacer on national television during the presentation ceremony.
Interestingly when the manager of the National bank team, Jameel Ahmed went to the board offices immediately after the match to find out about the encashment of the cheque as he wanted to distribute money among the players, he got the surprise of his life.
According to a well-informed source an official in the PCB domestic cricket department, Saqib Irfan informed Jameel that the award was announced by mistake and the cheque was handed over to Zia due to a misunderstanding.
"The official told the bank manager that there were no individual awards for the semifinals and the 50,000 award was meant for the final but by mistake it was announced at the semifinals by the marketing people," the source said.
"Zia was gutted when Jameel informed the youngster about this blunder," the source added.
Zia has already represented the Pakistan under-19 and A teams.
