December 10, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 5,1423

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LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec 9: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday said violence-wracked Pakistan’s claim for compensation due to lost revenues will be reviewed at its dispute committee meeting next January.

Cricket in Pakistan was dealt a serious blow after September 11 last year, as foreign teams pulled out of tours and opted to play Pakistan at neutral venues due to security concerns.

“There are no reasons to doubt that Pakistan suffered badly, incurring losses of around 20 million dollars, and their request for compensation will be discussed in the dispute committee meeting in January,” visiting ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said.

The shifting to neutral venues of two home series, against the West Indies and Australia earlier this year, devastated Pakistan financially.

And New Zealand’s rescheduled tour, postponed a week after the September 11 attacks, was cut short in May by one Test after a bomb blast outside the team’s Karachi hotel killed 14 people.

The Kiwis then refused to compete in a tri-series even after it was shifted to a neutral venue three months later, prompting a formal complaint by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Pakistan have also threatened to play two Tests instead of the scheduled three on their tour of New Zealand next December.

Despite the assurances of a review, Speed appeared helpless in terms of ordering monetary compensation to Pakistan.

“ICC does not have a pool of money to give to any country over and above other countries and it was left to other countries to contribute, which they did not,” Speed said.

He added that PCB refused a loan offer as a short-term solution.

The ICC’s top officials attended a development committee meeting here which concluded Sunday but their visit remained focused on the return of international cricket to the country and normalisation of cricket relations between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.

“Twelve months ago teams were not willing to go to Sri Lanka over security fears but now they are getting enough cricket and we hope the same happens in Pakistan,” Speed said.

Pakistan are next scheduled to host Bangladesh and South Africa for two Test series and a tri-series from August next year. Both teams have confirmed they will tour.

Earlier, ICC president Malcolm Gray predicted a corruption-free World Cup next year, revealing that no players are on a list of 101 ‘undesirables’ who will be barred from attending the tournament.

“ICC’s success is most widely talked about and we have put measures in place to ensure a corruption-free World Cup,” Gray added.

South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe host the eighth World Cup, held every four years, in February-March 2003.

Organisers in South Africa last month disclosed that ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has identified 101 ‘undesirables’ who will be barred for the World Cup in the aim of preventing match-fixing scandals.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said the list, which has not been made public, did not feature any player.

Cricket has been rocked by match-fixing and betting scandals over the past two years, which erupted when former South African captain Hansie Cronje confessed to taking money from bookmakers in June 2000.

Cronje was banned for life from the game. He died in a plane crash in June.

Two separate inquiries also resulted in life bans on former captains Salim Malik and Ataur Rehman of Pakistan and from India former captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma in 2000.

India’s batsman Ajay Jadeja is serving a five-year ban for match fixing.

The series of episodes led cricket’s governing body to form the ACU in June 2000 headed by former London police chief Sir Paul Condon.

“Match-fixing had disturbed us but the ICC and ACU have done great amount of work to ensure what did happen sometime ago does not happen in the World Cup,” Gray said.

The ACU earlier this year appointed five security managers to monitor international matches, put security cameras in ground and team hotels, and banned players from using mobile phones and meeting unwanted people in the ground.

The ACU also monitors matches which they suspect could be rigged.

The ICC officials were in Pakistan to attend ICC’s development committee which ended in Lahore on Sunday.—AFP