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| April 22, 2006 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1427 |
Too many matches with India perturb PCB
KARACHI, April 21: Pakistan is concerned that the increasing number of matches against India could lead to player burnout and a general lack of audience interest.
“We are going to be very careful and selective on the number of matches we play against India, especially at off shore venues,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan said on Friday.
Pakistan and India have played three bilateral series since 2004 and met in two One-day Internationals in Abu Dhabi this week.
“The motivating factor for having more matches against India is obviously money, but we are concerned that an excess of such games could lead to a drop in interest among the public,” he said.
“Already we are playing against each other too much and the marketing returns are lower when we first played in 2004.”
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently sold media rights for a series of planned off shore games against Pakistan and other countries for $217 million.
The Abu Dhabi games were the first installment of this package, though the proceeds were donated to the victims of last year's earthquake in Pakistan and India.
“Every corner of the world wants to host India and Pakistan matches but for us finance is not the only consideration,” Shaharyar said.
“We will be very selective about our future matches with India at off shore venues. We have already told them we don't want to play at neutral venues in the year we play a bilateral series,” he added.
Pakistan are scheduled to tour India in 2007 for a full series after hosting their rivals this year.
Meanwhile, the PCB said on Friday the joint South Asia bid to host the 2011 World Cup was facing stiff competition from Australia and New Zealand.
Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh submitted their bid on Thursday to the International Cricket Council (ICC) who had given them an extension from February in the deadline for the submission.
“The ICC has acknowledged our bid but Australia and New Zealand are very keen to host the 2011 World Cup and are insisting it is their turn to stage the competition,” a PCB spokesman said.
Australia and New Zealand have jointly hosted the World Cup only once before in 1992. Pakistan and India last staged the tournament in 1996 with Sri Lanka.
The spokesman said ICC Executive Board members would meet in Dubai on the April 30 to debate the two bids.
England hosted the 1999 tournament and Southern Africa the 2003 edition. West Indies stage the event in 2007. —Reuters
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