'ICC has no problems with Sharjah' - Mani

Ehsan Mani, the ICC's president, has dismissed claims that they had discouraged Sharjah as an international venue. Sharjah last hosted an international event in April 2003, when Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Kenya squared off in the Sharjah Cup, but Mani felt it was up to the individual boards to take the initiative to play there.

"As far as the ICC is concerned, Sharjah is a recognised venue," Mani told The Indian Express. "We have held two ICC tournaments in the recent past, and it's really up to every individual country's board to decide on playing there. It's for the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series [CBFS] and other cricket boards to decide when they can work out a timetable to play at Sharjah. We have no problems."

Sharjah also came into the spotlight when the match-fixing scandal broke out in 2001, and speculation has been rife about the reasons for the lack of recent international matches there. However, CBFS officials mentioned that one of the reasons for no tournaments being held for the last two years was the non-availability of teams owing to the hectic international schedule.

Mani also met P Chidambaram, India's finance minister, to discuss the tax exemptions for the ICC Champions Trophy, which is scheduled to be held in India in 2006. The ICC had earlier indicated that if the tax wasn't exempted, the tournament would have to be held elsewhere. Chidambaram, though, assured Mani that the government would look into the matter.