Organisers happy with Afro-Asia Cup

Syed Ashraful Haq, the Asian Cricket Council chief executive, has said that he is happy with the way the Afro-Asia Cup has gone so far, although he warned that the packed international calendar made it difficult to ensure top players appeared.

"We are very satisfied with the way the teams have responded as well as with the crowd response," he said when asked whether the the pull-out by leading stars like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar from the Asian team had affected the tournament. "Sachin and Rahul were absent when the tournament was held in 2005 also. And Kumar Sangakkara and Mutthiah Muralitharan were not available to play for Sri Lanka [at Abu Dhabi against Pakistan] because of their county commitments. Do you think this Asian team is weak?

"This tournament is being held for the purpose of developing unity through cricket. Where else can you see Mohammad Asif taking a wicket and being hugged by India's Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh. Cricket is not there only for making dollars and cents. We want Asia and Africa to be together for all purposes."

Haq said that the major problem was fitting the tournament into the packed international calendar. "It's very difficult to assemble players from six countries for seven days because of the packed calendar for all the teams. Players cannot be faulted for missing the tournament. They are overworked. They find it difficult to have even seven days' time to be with their family. If they want to take a break we should respect that."