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| December 4, 2002 | Wednesday | Ramazan 28,1423 |
ICC meeting offers hope for Pakistan
LAHORE,Dec 3: International Cricket Council (ICC) Development Committee meeting here on December 7-8 appears to be a ray of hope for Pakistan to restore its image as a safe cricket venue.
It would be a first major cricket related high profile activity in 15 months which Pakistan looks forward to host after shifting of cricket events to neutral venues.
In the backdrop of terrorists attacks on America on Sept 11 and border tensions between neighbouring countries kept foreign teams away from Pakistan and subsequently all the scheduled home series were shifted to neutral venues.
Pakistan was not only deprived of international cricket but it caused huge financial losses to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which is in turmoil that if the present situation continues it will be difficult for it to meet both the ends.
In the present scenario such a high level meeting in Pakistan appears to be a sign of hope for PCB to re-establish it creditability,giving big boost to its pledge that things are peaceful for revival of cricket series.
The holding of ICC meeting in Pakistan is the result of devoted efforts of, Chairman, PCB,Lt General, Tauqir Zia who motivated the Games Ruling Body for re-allocating the event to Pakistan at a stage when efforts were being made to shift it to Holland due to security fears.
ICC Executive Board’s meeting held at Colombo in September last re-allotted the meeting to Pakistan when PCB put its weight on ICC for re-scheduling the meeting which was originally to be held on Oct 20-21 but was cancelled because of security concerns.
PCB chief, Lt General Tauqir Zia, has termed the meeting a good omen for Pakistan cricket and said it would support Pakistan’s stance of a safe country for international cricket.
The added flavour in the meeting is the participation of ICC President Malcolm Gray who usually doesn’t attend development meetings.
“Pakistan has been and is an absolutely safe country and any team that wants to come and play and foreigners who want to visit Pakistan will have no problems whatsoever,” he added.
The PCB Chief claim is duly supplemented with the presence of Englishman Bob Woolmer who spent more than a week in Lahore last month in connection with his coaches course held under the aegis of Asian Cricket Council.
To a question that the meeting would break the ice and help revive international cricket in Pakistan, Tauqir Zia said: “I think the ice has laready broken with the visit of ICC high performance manager Bob Woolmer.It is now the melting of the ice, particularly when the ICC President and the Chief Executive are coming”,he said.
“ PCB and ICC enjoy excellent relations and I think ICC has reposed its confidence on Pakistan and through the coming meeting the relationship between Pakistan and Games ruling body would further strengthen “,he said.In fact, Pakistan has very good bilateral relations with most of the cricket boards. And this meeting, in fact, reveals that cricket playing countries trust Pakistan as a big support for the cause of cricket “,he said.
The two-day summit will also be participated by ICC outgoing President Malcolm Gray, President elect, Ahsan Mani and Chief Executive Malcolm Speed. Other participants include: Andrew Eade (ICC Global Development Manager), John Wright (Europe Representative), Zakir Hussain Syed (Asia Representative), Mark Stafford (EAP Representative), Ellis Lewis (Americas Representative), Maqbul Dudhia (Africa Representative), Roger Knight (MCC Delegate), Rene van Lerschot (Associate Delegate) and Faisal Hasnain (Chief Financial Officer).—APP
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