LAHORE - Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is probing the matter of illegal and unauthorised travel of LCCA's East Zone cricket association team to Dubai last month to play matches there.

East Zone Cricket Association secretary Ayaz Khan arranged the tour of team without seeking prior permission from the Lahore City Cricket Association or the PCB, said the sources in the PCB.

Ayaz allegedly took hefty money from each player of the 15-member team for the 10-day tour using his own travel agency to plan the trip. "Even the team wore the kit of East Zone during the matches in Dubai whereas the team did not comprise players from the East Zone but those, who paid a good amount of money to Ayaz, were made part of it,” said some of East Zone clubs in their written complaint sent to the interim committee of the LCCA and the PCB. They said the interim committee was well aware of the travelling of the so-called team but it did not take any action against it.

They alleged that Ayaz was involved in illegal cricket activities since long and took various teams abroad without getting permission from the concerned quarters. "Ayaz arranged bogus team's tour to Malaysia and Sri Lanka last year and LCCA failed to take notice of such illegal trips," they added.

They were of the view that such tours can be part of human trafficking and subsequently can bring bad name to the country. "It is part of corruption in cricket as players are paying handsome amounts for such illegal tours to play such local teams which have no standing and the matches have no recognition in their own cricket system," they added.

When contacted, LCCA Interim Committee chairman Imran Bucha said he was aware of matter which has been referred to the PCB for getting guidance in this regard. "Team undertook an illegal trip to Dubai without getting permission from us (LCCA) or the PCB and we don't know who were part of it. As soon as the PCB sends its opinion and recommendations on it, we will conclude the matter under PCB guideline in order to decide the case on merit".

He also confirmed that Ayaz also took two teams abroad (Malaysia and Sri Lank) last year.

He assured that in future stern action will be taken against such teams which do not represent any Zone of the LCCA or don't seek prior permission for touring abroad for cricket activities.