Lahore, September 10: In a bid to revive international cricket in Pakistan, PCB chief Ijaz Butt will meet his English counterpart Giles Clarke in London over the weekend.
A senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official informed that Butt, after concluding his short trip of UAE today, will fly off to London to meet the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief Clarke, who is also the chairman of an ICC task force that has been assigned to mend ways to help Pakistan maintain its international fixture schedule.
”The chairman (Butt) will discuss several important issues with the ECB chief,” said the PCB official. ”We are hoping to get a very positive outcome from the meeting,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The News’.
It has been learnt that Butt and Clarke are expected to ink a deal over Pakistan’s ‘home’ series against Australia, scheduled to take place in England next summer.
Butt is also expected to finalise details of Pakistan’s Test series against England to be held there after the matches against Australia.
Pakistan is to host Australia for two Tests and a couple of Twenty20 Internationals next July. However, the Tests were supposed to be held in Pakistan last year but were scrapped due to security concerns.
The PCB official further said apart from finalising Pakistan’s tour of England next year, Butt will also discuss with the ECB chairman regarding the return of international cricket to Pakistan.
PCB officials are already making efforts to mend ways for bringing back international cricket in the strife-torn nation and are hopeful that the ICC and other stakeholders will support them.
Following the terror stikes on Sri Lankan cricketers here in March this year, the ICC stripped Pakistan off its share of World Cup 2011 matches and relocated the matches to the other three co-hosts.
Earlier, security apprehensions had already forced the game’s world governing body to shifted last year’s Champions Trophy from Pakistan to South Africa, starting later this month.
From then, there has been little hope for the return of international cricket in Pakistan in the near future but PCB officials remain optimistic.
Earlier this summer, Clarke had declared that the ECB will offer its helping hand to Pakistan in their effort to revive international cricket in the country.
”PCB is faced with a challenging situation and ECB in its role as a member of global cricket community is keen to offer PCB all possible assistance at such a difficult time,” Clarke had stated.
—–Agencies