LAHORE, Nov 7: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) are keen to host a Twenty20 match against England to raise funds for the victims of the Oct 8 earthquake. PCB Chairman Shaharyar M. Khan said there was a proposal to hold the match in the period between the final Test, which ends on Dec 3, and the start of the one-day series a week later.

“We have discussed this verbally with the English cricket authorities but it is yet to be finalised,” he said.

“We are interested in such a match because it would raise lot of funds for the quake victims who need it badly.”

The devastating earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in northern Pakistan and left over three million injured.

England’s players and officials have pledged around 100,000 pounds ($174,800) for the quake victims. The PCB has also announced it would donate earnings from the first One-day International against England in Lahore.

Meanwhile, the PCB chief hoped the forthcoming series would improve Pakistan’s image — both off and on the field.

“I think the series against England is important for our safe image because England is the first side other than the sub-continental (South Asian) sides to play in Pakistan for five years,” he said.

England was the last non-South Asian side to play in the troubled cities of Karachi and Peshawar in 2000 before the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States sparked security fears in and around Pakistan.

“Tension was at the peak after 9/11 because no team was ready to tour Pakistan,” the PCB chairman pointed out.

Australia and the West Indies refused to tour Pakistan, citing players’ safety concerns and the series were played on neutral venues in 2002.

New Zealand, who postponed their tour of Pakistan a week after the 9/11 incidents, had to cut short their revised series after a bomb blast outside their team hotel in Karachi killed 14 people in May 2002.

That followed South Africa and India’s refusal to play a five-day Test in Karachi where bomb blasts and ethnic violence has killed scores of people in the last five years.

England, too, refused to play a Test in Karachi over security fears and agreed to play only one limited-overs international there on the current tour.

—Agencies