LAHORE: With the cost of regular venues in the UAE constantly shooting up, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday considered different countries as new neutral venues to host its home series.

PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan met Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq, chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, NCA Director Academies Mudassar Nazar and NCA spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmad on Friday to discuss the said matter.

“Yes, I held a joint marathon meeting with Misbah, Inzamam, Mudassar and others on Friday to reconsider neutral venues for the Pakistan home series as the cost of the UAE venues is too much,” Shaharyar told Dawn.

“Different useful proposals came up during the meeting and many attendants were in favour of Sri Lanka as new venue with many endorsing Bangladesh while others favoured South Africa and England as well as new neutral venues. These proposals will be discussed further to take a final decision in near future,” the PCB chairman said.

He said though many were against the proposal of selecting England as a neutral venue because the country had very short period of cricket season, still that country would be discussed further.

He said grounds in Bangladesh were good and the stadiums there also had the potential to attract a large number of fans to come and see the matches which was not the situation in the UAE, especially in Test cricket.

Shaharyar said the meeting also discussed the standard of grounds and stadiums in the country and it was decided to renovate all the nine stadiums which were in control of the PCB.

It was also necessary, he said, to upgrade those nine stadiums because international events could be played in Pakistan any time, considering improvement in law and order situation.

He said many stadiums under the control of the PCB were not in good condition to host matches and there was a need to upgrade those as soon as possible.

He said those nine grounds were also not in good shape due to hosting of a good number of first-class and U-19 matches, adding that a system would be developed to hold less number of U-19 matches in big stadiums.

Shaharyar further said that the meeting noted with disappointment that many players of Pakistan ‘A’ team which recently toured Zimbabwe were not fully fit.

“Though the Pakistan ‘A’ played well in Zimbabwe and won matches, most of the players of the ‘A’ team failed to meet set fitness standards and that was a worrying area,” he maintained.

The chairman said that both Misbah and Inzamam were quite concerned about the poor fitness level of the players while stating that Mudassar had been asked to prepare a comprehensive programme at the regional level to improve the fitness of players.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2016