Late Twenty20 puts schedules in disarray

The late scheduling of the inaugural Twenty-20 World Championship was to be blamed for the overlapping of tour dates of Pakistan

The late scheduling of the inaugural Twenty-20 World Championship was to be blamed for the overlapping of tour dates of Pakistan, India and Australia, and the officials of the three boards will meet in Fujairah on January 25-26 to resolve the issue, a PCB official said today.

“There is a major problem with the scheduling in the Future Tours Programme due to the late inclusion of the first Twenty20 World Cup in September which is a two-week event starting around September 9,” a PCB official said. “Due to this tournament Pakistan, India and Australia are all facing problems with their bilateral tours this winter.”

Pakistan are due to tour India from first week of November to the middle of December while India have to tour Australia after the series. “The problem is that we have to play three tests and five one-day Internationals in India and that is finalised between both boards and the venues and dates are being discussed now,” the PCB official said.

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“Australia want India to play four Tests and they want the Test series to start from first week of December to get in the traditional Boxing Day Test, which is not possible at this stage.”

The PCB official said because of this overlapping of the bilateral series, even Zimbabwe’s visit to Pakistan in January for five one-day Internationals was not confirmed as yet. The official said the tours would not have overlapped if the tournament had not been scheduled so late by the ICC. “But it is an event which all Test playing nations have committed to. The meeting in Fujairah will try to find a solution to get around these scheduling problems,” he said. The official said the meeting will also discuss the possibility of having a future tours junior programme for all Test playing nations.

While aboard INS Vikrant, the Prime Minister had a packed schedule of engagements, officials said.

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