Pakistan keen to play one-day series in India

The Pakistan board is trying to schedule a one-day series in India before the team embarks on their tour to Australia in December 2004. The News, a Pakistan daily, quoted sources from the Pakistan board who said that Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, and Rameez Raja, its chief executive, were keen to ensure a series in India, or arrange a tournament in Sharjah.

"The idea is to either convince the Indian cricket board to ensure Pakistan's participation in a one-day series in India or to ask the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series to organise a tournament [in Sharjah]," the newspaper quoted the source as saying. "The Pakistan team will then be playing at home in October against Zimbabwe and probably another team in a Test and one-day series, while they embark on the Australian tour from early December. But November remains free for the national team."

Pakistan recently hosted India in a Test and one-day series for the first time since 1989, and a return series is due next year. Meanwhile, the crowded international calendar has also meant that Sharjah hasn't hosted a showpiece event since April 2003, when, in a low-profile event immediately following the World Cup, Pakistan put it across Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Kenya, the two other teams involved in a quadrangular tournament.