Sharjah tournament rescheduled following Indian request

The tri-nation Sharjah series has been rescheduled by four days to April 8-20 at India's request to avoid a clash of dates with the Australian team's tour of the country.

"We received a request from the Indian Cricket Board to shift the dates as Australia will be playing one-day international matches in India till April 6", Zahid Noorani, Chief Executive of the Cricketers' Benefit Fund Series (CBFS), organisers of the Sharjah tournament, said in Dubai on Monday.

The CBFS has informed Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the other two teams in the fray, about the change in dates and it hoped they would agree to the new schedule as they have no commitments during the period, media reports said on Monday.

The Gulf News, however, said BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele refused to confirm if India had made a request to the CBFS for a change. "I do not want to comment on this controversial matter", the daily quoted Lele as saying.

"Lele tried to wriggle out of the complicated situation by stating that the schedule for the Australia-India series which was leaked out was an unofficial one and that the official tour schedule will be released only on January 22", the daily said.

The BCCI had earlier decided to cancel a three-day match ahead of the first Test against the Australians to accommodate the Sharjah series scheduled to begin on April 4. But following reports that the Australian Cricket Board was miffed by the unilateral change in the itinerary mutually agreed upon six months ago, the BCCI decided to ask the CBFS for the rescheduling.