LAHORE: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has yet not replied to the Pakistan Cricket Board whether it is appointing neutral umpires for the latter’s home series against Zimbabwe.

The PCB and Zimbabwe have almost agreed to play five One-day Internationals and two T20 matches, according to the proposed itinerary.

The series is likely to begin from May 18. But as it is the series between Test-playing countries, the ICC is to appoint match referee and at least a couple of neutral umpires to supervise the matches along with local umpires.

Due to security fears, foreign countries and match officials are reluctant to visit Pakistan. However, Zimbabwe expressed its willingness to visit Pakistan and the PCB, finding a gap in between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka series, gave them green signal.

Soon after giving consent to Zimbabwe, the PCB had made a contact with the ICC, asking it to take a decision about appointing neutral umpires for the series.

On last occasion, when Bangladesh was about to visit Pakistan in 2012, same issue was raised as the ICC could not make neutral umpires available and allowed the PCB to appoint local umpires under special circumstances.

In fact, the ICC seems a weak organisation if anyone compares it with FIFA. For the last many years, FIFA had been holding international matches in Pakistan, rejecting protests of the visiting countries on security grounds and also making foreign referees and umpires available to conduct matches.

Sources in the PCB said that a decision in this regard is most likely to be taken on the sidelines of the ongoing ICC meetings in Dubai, where the officials of all the cricket boards are available.

The PCB is pinning hopes on successful hosting of Zimbabwe as it may prove a major factor in attracting other cricket nations to also visit Pakistan.

In the recent past, the PCB had successfully hosted Afghanistan and Kenya but organising a series against a Test country will be a key success.

Holland and Ireland teams may also visit Pakistan after Zimbabwe at some point this year.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2015

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