September 12, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 11, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 11: Not only India but some other countries also have issues with the rescheduling of Champions Trophy in September or October 2009, making it difficult for the ICC to take a decision, a senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said at the two-day meeting in Dubai.

“The future tours programme was discussed in detail on the first day of the meeting and besides India, other countries have also said they can’t change their prior commitments for the 2009 event,” said PCB’s Chief Operating Officer, Shafqat Naghmi. “But Pakistan is pushing for the tournament to be held in October because as it is the ICC has an agreement with its broadcasters that it can’t postpone the tournament for more than 13 months,” he added.

The Champions Trophy was to be held from Sept 12 in Pakistan but the ICC postponed it after some countries refused to send their teams to Pakistan because of security reasons.

The ICC chief executives’ committee is due to finalise new dates for the tournament but India has said it can’t change the schedule for its seven-match one-day series against Australia from mid-October Australia and South Africa are planning to have the Champions League Twenty20 event in September and October 2009 as well. Naghmi said things were a bit complicated at the moment as a series involving South Africa was also scheduled in October next year. “The BCCI did not say that India is not in favour of playing the Champions Trophy in October but they did raise the point about their commitments. “But we have no differences with the BCCI over the clash of dates and we are hopeful something will be worked out,” he added.

Former ICC president Ehsan Mani on Wednesday advised the PCB to surrender the hosting rights of the Champions Trophy to avoid financial losses.

But the PCB reacted sharply to Mani’s advice. “It’s his point of view but as far as we are concerned, we are not going to the surrender the hosting rights of Champions Trophy,” spokesman of the cricket board Mansoor Suhail told the Associated Press.

The Champions Trophy was put back to October 2009, but India’s cricket board has expressed reservations over those proposed dates, because it had planned a seven-match One-day International series against Australia at that time.

“These (dates) are all procedural issues which could be resolved with mutual understanding,” Suhail said.

Sri Lanka was the alternate venue to host the Champions Trophy, but Pakistan refused to entertain a switch.

Naghmi said the ICC meeting had discussed possible dates in second week of October for the Champions Trophy.

In another development, the Chief Executives Committee meeting also decided to continue with the experimental referral system for umpires until May next year after it was tested out recently in the India and Sri Lanka series with mixed reactions.

Meanwhile, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah clearly stated that India will not be participating if the Champions Trophy is held during October 2009.

“We have conveyed that the Champions Trophy in October 2009 will not work out for us since we are hosting Australia at that time,” said Shah.

“The one-day series against Australia is a very important fixture for us. It has been scheduled and we can’t do anything about it. All the boards will have to find another solution or window for the Champions Trophy.”—Agencies