England to prepare for Sharjah at Lahore (15 July 1997)

15 July 1997

England to prepare for Sharjah at Lahore

By Our Sports Reporter

KARACHI, July 14: England, like their arch-rivals Australia who prepared for the Ashes tour in Hong Kong, will train for the four-nation tournament in Sharjah by playing three warmup matches in Lahore in December. The Chief Executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Tim Lamb, said late Monday evening.

Lamb, on a two-day tour of Pakistan, said the deliberations in this connections were held at Lahore on Monday where Majid Khan, his counterpart, has accepted the proposal. "My main purpose of this visit was to fix arrangements for England's one-week tour. It has been decided that the England team will come to Lahore in early December. The exact dates and details of the matches, however, have to be confirmed," said Lamb, who flies back to London on Tuesday morning, adding: "But the PCB has agreed in principle to host the England team in the best part of the week on the way to Sharjah."

Lamb said England could not play the Pakistan team because it would be engaged in Gujranwala (second Test) and in Karachi (third Test). "We would be playing against the Pakistan team in Sharjah so we don't want to play each other before that. "But I am hoping that we would be able to play against a competitive Pakistan second eleven. I have left it to Majid to finalise but I have asked for the strongest possible opponent to provide us the best warmups for Sharjah competition." Lamb said he preferred to play in Lahore because it had floodlight facilities. "The Sharjah tournament will be played under lights and according to my information there are no other stadia in Pakistan where there is facility for night games."

Lamb said when Chief Executives of two cricket boards meet, several issues come up for discussion. "Primarily, one or two things arising out of the ICC meeting which was held recently were discussed. Besides, we exchanged views on a number of things of mutual interest." Lamb clarified that the visit of England team to Pakistan was not because of any breakdown in relations. "As you know, we have exchanged two Under-19 tours. "It may be because we, at the moment, have more Test playing countries than we used to have last decade. South Africa has returned to the ICC fold and Zimbabwe were given Test status early this decade. In this background, it is difficult to visit countries with that much regularity." said Lamb.

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)