September 11, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 10: Former International Cricket Council (ICC) President Ehsan Mani on Wednesday advised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to surrender the hosting rights of the Champions Trophy to be held by October 2009.

Ehsan said such a decision would be in greater interest of the international cricket community and suggested that the PCB should in return ask the ICC to allot it a major event in the future.

“I was surprised that till last the PCB was sticking to its guns to host the Champions Trophy while in my opinion it should have given up on the hosting rights and allowed it to shift to some other venue,” Ehsan said in an interview.

Pakistan was supposed to host the eight-nation Champions Trophy from Sept 12 to 28 but the ICC was forced to postpone the event till next October after five of the competing teams including defending champions Australia raised serious security concerns about travelling to Pakistan.

The ICC had the option of switching the Champions Trophy to Sri Lanka — the event’s reserve venue — but gave up the idea after Pakistan resisted the move with the support of the powerful Indian cricket board.

But Ehsan, a Pakistani national who was last year appointed as a marketing advisor by the PCB, said the board didn’t act wisely.

“Since it was known much before time that some teams were not comfortable about touring Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, the PCB should have taken the initiative by asking the ICC to shift it to an alternate venue instead of postponing it to avoid the financial losses,” he said.

“In case of shifting of the tournament, the ICC could have earned approximately $50 million and every participating team would have had their share of $3.75 million each.”

Ehsan said Pakistan should have asked for compensation instead of taking a rigid stance on the hosting of the event. “The correct course in my view would have been that the PCB should have withdrawn from hosting the Champions Trophy and should have demanded any future ICC event like 2012 Champions Trophy or Twenty20 World Cup of 2013 as compensation since the ICC is yet to allocate those events.

“I am of the view that even now during the ICC meetings underway in Dubai, the PCB should surrender the hosting rights of the Champions Trophy and ask the ICC to hold it next year in Dubai or anywhere else they want in lieu of any future ICC event when things become normal in Pakistan,” he said.

—Agencies