South Africa second choice for hosting Pak-Australia series – Cricket News Update
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board has revealed that if they are unable to negotiate a favourable deal with Sri Lanka, the next country they may consider for the purpose of hosting Australia for an ODI series is South Africa.
“In case we don’t reach a cost effective deal with the Sri Lankan board, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 is the other alternate neutral venue for us,” confirmed Subhan Ahmed, PCB’s chief operating officer.
The proposed series will involve four one-day internationals and three T20Is. The original plan was to use Sri Lanka as the venue for the series. Officials from both the PCB and SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket) confirmed that talks were underway. However, a deal
has not been finalized as yet.
“In principle we have decided to hold the series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in August in Sri Lanka but we are negotiating with the Sri Lankan board for a favourable deal,” explained Ahmed.
“The venues in Sri Lanka where we will hold the matches will be decided soon. The Australians have also not expressed any reservations over playing in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.”
The Men In Green last hosted a series in March 2009, which culminated in the visiting Sri Lankan team becoming the victims of a terrorist attack. Six Pakistani policemen and a http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Graham-Robert-Cowdrey-c60631 driver lost their lives in the incident, and several players from the visiting
team were injured. Since then, Pakistan has been deemed unsafe for countries to tour, forcing the PCB to host series in neutral venues, usually the UAE, where they currently played against England.
However, with the series against the Aussies scheduled for August, the conditions in the UAE have been deemed far too hot, owing to which the board has been forced to consider other options, among them Sri Lanka and South Africa.
In addition to hosting series at neutral venues, the PCB has also been attempting to bring international cricket back to Pakistan. A proposal to host http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 refused to send
their match officials to the country owing to security concerns, despite having agreed to grant the series official endorsement. The fate of the proposed series is yet to be decided.
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