ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that revival of international cricket in the country depends mainly on how the security situation shapes up during the coming years.

PCB’s chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed and director cricket development Haroon Rashid on Tuesday briefed the Senate Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), which oversees sports in the country, about steps taken by the PCB for the betterment of cricket.

Subhan said that while the Board is doing its best for the revival of international cricket at home, it all depended on the security situation prevailing in the country.

Pakistan now part of cricket's 'Big Four': PCB

“While PCB’s efforts to revive international cricket in the country will continue, its restoration mainly depends on the security situation,” he remarked. The meeting was held at the Parliament Lodges with Senator Farah Aqil in the chair with Senator Saleem H. Mandviwalla, Senator Mukhtar Ahmed Dharmrah, Senator Saeeda Iqbal, Senator Kalsoom Parveen, IPC secretary Ejaz Chaudhry among others in attendance.

PCB officials told the committee that the PCB is going to hold the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in a gulf country in December 2014-January 2015 where several international players will also be approached for participation.

They said that the league will help Pakistan in revival of international cricket since the league will ultimately be shifted to Pakistan.

Speaking about sponsorship, the PCB officials informed the committee that the cricket board will make efforts to rope in international sponsors for financial backing of the PSL. The Senate Committee then directed the PCB to also take practical steps for finding local sponsors for the event.

Briefing the committee about PCB’s position on the ‘Big Three’ issue, the Subhan said that the Board had no option left but to accept the proposals presented by the ‘Big Three.’

He further said that having accepted the ‘Big Three’ formula, Pakistan will get an estimated revenue of Rs250 million in the next eight years besides getting cricket series against all major countries including six tours against India between 2015 until 2023 with four of them to be hosted by Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2014