BCCI opposes Pakistan hosting Asian Cricket Council event

Pakistan’s hopes of hosting the next Asian Emerging Nations Cup cricket in April next year is on hold – courtesy the Indian cricket board (BCCI).

Pakistan was given the hosting rights for the six-nation tournament at an Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Lahore on October 29 which BCCI did not attend. But sources say BCCI has taken strong objection to the decision and communicated the same at the recently-held ACC meeting in Dubai. The BCCI’s main grouse is that it was not consulted before announcing the venue for the event in which India are also supposed to take part.

With India not ready to send a team to Pakistan, it will be interesting to see how ACC handles this issue. With Sri Lanka committing to send it’s team to Pakistan and committed to even sending the national team and under-19 sides, it is unlikely that Pakistan would eventually stage the event.

International cricket is almost non-existent in Pakistan after the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore during the 2009 tour. It was eight years after that attack earlier this year that Sri Lanka sent a team to Pakistan to signal the revival of international cricket in the troubled nation.

The T20 zonal league, which was scheduled to be held between January 21 to 29 and the knockout phase of Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy (Feb 4-10) have been advanced to ensure that IPL team owners get a good look at the domestic talent before the January 27-28 auction. According to circular distributed to the members, the T20 league would be held from January 8-16 while the Syed Mustaq Ali KOs will be played between Jan 21and 27.

Dates of other domestic tournament:

One-day tournament: February 5-14;
Vijay Hazare knockout: February 21-26;
DB Deodhar Trophy: March 4-8.;
Irani Cup: March 14-18.