PCB chief holds meeting with ECB

[waquas_uk]

KARACHI: Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shaharyar Khan has held discussions with the officials of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in London on his way to Barbados to watch Pakistan’s first Test in the West Indies.

PCB Director Operations Abbas Zaidi confirmed that Shaharyar had held meeting with the ECB officials but said he could not give out any details. "I did speak to the chairman but he only said that the meeting had been a very good one from Pakistan’s point of view and that he would give out details on returning home," Zaidi said.

The PCB chief had lined up the meeting in a bid to get the final response of the ECB on the proposed itinerary sent to them for England’s tour of Pakistan from October.

Pakistan has already sent a proposed itinerary to the ECB excluding Peshawar and Quetta from the venues but has scheduled a Test and two one-dayers in Karachi, another centre that has been shunned by most touring teams since the September 11, 2001 incident including the West Indies, Australia and South Africa.

But Zaidi said the PCB was not anticipating any problems from the ECB for the coming tour and insisted that Karachi would be hosting matches against England and later India who tour from January 2, 2006 onwards. "Karachi is a very important and major cricket centre for us and we can’t ignore it at any cost," he said.

Zaidi also said that there were indications that Shaharyar would have had detailed discussions with the ECB officials on the proposed itinerary which had been sent to them well in advance.

Asked about the progress made by the PCB marketing officials who are in London to discuss sponsorship deals for the England series, he said they were expected to be back this week and apparently made a breakthrough in securing sponsorship for the series.

[Amir]

I think England will come to Karachi, just because they have a recent good history there and would look to repeat the same performance with such a better team.

[Daoud]

Karachi certainly should be hosting games. I hope they accept the proposal

[Gasherbrum]

i wonder if the words 'jolly' and 'good' were used by either of the two parties during the discussions ?