March 15, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1429

LAHORE, March 14: The Pakistan Cricket Board, desperately looking to recover its financial losses as well as save face for a barren season of international cricket at home, has now invited the Sri Lankans to visit Pakistan after Bangladesh’s acceptance of a similar invitation to play here.

Even though Bangladesh came to Pakistan’s rescue by accepting to play a series of short matches in different cities, the PCB in an attempt to further makeup their losses has made verbal contact with Sri Lanka to also send their national team here for a five One-day International series.

Sources told Dawn on Friday that Sri Lanka’s reply has been encouraging but it will not be possible for Jayawardene’s men to compete in a proposed tri-nation competition which also involves Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh are considering the proposed itinerary, which suggests that the tour comprising five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 will commence from the first week of April. But Sri Lanka will not be available then as they would be busy playing in a series against the West Indies till April 15. If confirmed, the Sri Lankan tour will be starting from the third week of April.

The PCB has reportedly suffered financial losses of around five to six million US dollars owing to the postponement of the Aussie tour. And even though the cricket board had got the series insured through a leading company in England, it will not exactly benefit from the deal since the tour has been postponed not cancelled. On similar grounds, the PCB is also unable to put up the case with the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) dispute committee for compensation.

It was stated by an ICC spokesman last week: “As the tour has been deferred with the mutual understanding of the two cricket boards, the ICC’s dispute committee has no authority to interfere in the matter.”