England to host Australia-Pakistan matches in 2010
by Julian GUYER
CRICKET: LONDON, June 27, 2009 - England will host two Test matches
and two Twenty20 internationals between Pakistan and Australia in 2010,
the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced on Friday.
Pakistan is currently unable to host international cricket because of
security concerns, which were heightened following a terrorist attack on
the Sri Lanka team bus in March in Lahore.
The matches will take place in July 2010.
The ECB also announced that England will take on Pakistan in four
Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals in
England in August and September of next year.
ECB chairman Giles Clarke said: "The Pakistan team performed
outstandingly well in the World T20 tournament in England and were
worthy world champions.
"The passion of the support for their team in England demonstrated
why this country is an ideal venue for these matches against Australia."
Clarke has agreed to serve as chairman of a task-force set up by the
International Cricket Council (ICC) to devise ways of helping the
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to maintain its international fixture
schedule.
"The Pakistan Cricket Board is faced with a very challenging
situation at present and ECB in its role as a member of the global
cricket community is keen to offer PCB all possible assistance at such a
difficult time," Clarke said.
"I am delighted to take on this role and will be liaising closely
with my colleagues at PCB in the coming weeks and months."
He added: "The warm relations between our two boards has developed
further under the leadership of the current PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, with
whom I enjoy an excellent working relationship, and ECB is delighted to
support Pakistan in staging these matches."
The announcement of these fixtures came just a day after the ICC
confirmed that Pakistan would not, as planned, stage matches during the
2011 World Cup.
Instead the ICC said on Thursday that the 14 World Cup matches due to
be played in Pakistan would be split between the three other
sub-continent co-hosts of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
But the PCB, which is taking legal action against the ICC, still
hopes to stage its matches in a "neutral" venue such as the United Arab
Emirates.
"We are not insisting to host matches in our country because of the
security situation," Butt told AFP in Karachi earlier on Friday.
"It is a serious matter after what happened to the Sri Lankan team
here but we will continue to fight for the matches," he added.
"Foreign teams are not coming to Pakistan because of security fears
but we will continue to make efforts to convince the three other
countries to give us matches."
Butt said there were "various options at our disposal" ahead of a
meeting of the tournament's Central Organising Committee (COC), which
will decide how many of the World Cup matches are played in each of the
other three host countries.
ICC president David Morgan, speaking after the second day of the
governing body's board meeting at Lord's on Thursday, said the PCB
remained a World Cup co-host and would still receive a fee of 750,000 US
dollars for each of its 14 matches - 10.5 million dollars in
total.Pakistan, who beat Sri Lanka in Sunday's World Twenty20 final at
Lord's, are about to embark on a tour of the island nation, starting
next week, featuring three Tests, five one-day internationals and one
Twenty20 international.
AFP
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