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India and Pakistan turned back the clock, rolled back their objections and prepared to rake in the big bucks as they announced on Saturday, ...

India and Pakistan turned back the clock, rolled back their objections and prepared to rake in the big bucks as they announced on Saturday, following a meeting of the two Board chiefs, a slew of matches at third-country venues — including Sharjah, Singapore and Toronto, which were banned following match-fixing rumours. The official purpose is to spread the game among South Asians in those areas but there’s a strong bottomline to it.

The other key decision was a four-pronged South Asia bid to host the 2011 World Cup. Australia are due the tournament but have said they would back out if there was a South Asian bid.

And after all the talk of an overkill of India-Pakistan matches, the new schedule chalked out by the two boards hasn’t bothered to keep a check on it. Instead, the announcement by the PCB and BCCI seeks to make India-Pakistan encounters even more frequent.

Here’s a list of what was decided:

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• Cricket series between India and Pakistan will now be bilateral—on lines of the Ashes (every two years).

• The two teams — after consultations with the government—will play each other every year at neutral venues like UAE, New Jersey and California to popularise the game in countries where there is a huge Asian population and cricket is followed keenly.

• The Ranji and Quaid-E-Azam champions will play at alternate venues (in India and Pakistan) every year. So will the Under-17 and Under-19 champions play each other on a regular basis.

• Two ODIs will be played between India and Pakistan at neutral venues. The first will be an earthquake relief match of which 75 percent of the revenue will go to Pakistan while 25 percent to India. The revenue from the second match will be shared by the BCCI and the PCB equally for development of the board.

India tri-series with Pakistan & Australia?

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Lahore: Pakistan are likely to play in a triseries in India with Australia as third team later this year, PCB chief Shaharyar Khan said, a competition that could generate $50m in revenue. Pakistan’s availability will be known after the ICC decides on the status of Zimbabwe, who are scheduled to visit here the same time (Oct-Nov) as Oz are in India.