*.¸¸.·*Baby_doll*.¸¸.·* 0 Posted August 17, 2004 Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has eventually succeeded in prevailing over Sri Lanka to play Test matches during its tour of Pakistan in October. Earlier Sri Lanka had acceded to participate in only the triangular one-day series also involving Zimbabwe after the African country was barred from playing Test cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the remainder of this year. The schedule for the Sri Lankan tour has still not been finalized, however the two-Test series will be played from around October 20 and the matches will be played in Lahore and Karachi. Before that, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe will be involved along with the hosts Pakistan in a double league tri-nation tournament that will have a total of seven games. Sri Lanka had earlier refused to play Tests in Pakistan in October because of its international commitments as a Test series was planned against Bangladesh during the same period. However the Bangladesh Cricket Board, on Pakistan’s request, has decided to move the Test series dates forward to sometimes in February or March. Shaharyar M. Khan, PCB chairman made this announcement after his arrival from Colombo where he had gone to attend an Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting. “I had detailed discussion in Sri Lanka with the host cricket board president Mr. Mohan DeSilva with regards to the Pakistan tour and I am glad that he has agreed to our request of playing Test matches in October. Earlier Sri Lanka’s visit to Pakistan was divided into two parts. In the first part, only the triangular tournament was to be played and then the team was due to visit Pakistan again in March next year for Test matches. We are thankful for Bangladesh for cooperating with us as it has postponed its already arranged series against Sri Lanka till February. Now Sri Lanka will play two Tests soon after the triangular tournament. We had proposed three matches but due to paucity of time only two matches in Karachi and Lahore are possible. Had Sri Lanka agreed, the third Test would have been played in Peshawar,” stated the PCB chairman. PCB was not in favour of a split series with Sri Lanka as according to Shaharyar Khan, “it becomes difficult to find sponsorship and keep the interest of the people alive. We are definitely more comfortable with hosting the triangular and than the two Tests.” The final itinerary for the tri-series has still not been approved by both Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, though the matches are slated between October 1 and October 16. Interestingly no ODI has been planned for Karachi. “We want different cricket centres of the country to host these games and therefore no one-day match has been allocated to Karachi,” explained Shaharyar Khan. Zimbabwe will arrive in Pakistan on September 17 and prior to the ODIs will play a two-day and a four-day match against a Pakistan ‘A’ side. These games will allow the Test-scrapped Zimbabwe to acclimatise with the playing conditions in Pakistan. PCB chairman assured that foolproof security arrangements will be made for both the contesting teams. “Cricketers from both the countries will be provided security equivalent to what is provided to the head of the state. Zimbabwe was originally scheduled to play three Tests and the same number of ODIs but the PCB was compelled to revise the plan after ICC temporarily cancelled Zimbabwe’s Test status. The Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) has been embroiled in a dispute with 14 leading cricketers for the last few months that has not allowed Zimbabwe to field a full strength team worthy of playing Test cricket. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Asim Ali 0 Posted August 21, 2004 Thats a Good News Actually After The Cancellation Of Test with Zimbabwee pakistan had nothing to play at home excpet ondays so thats a good decion Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
*.¸¸.·*Baby_doll*.¸¸.·* 0 Posted August 21, 2004 yah..its good Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
