Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan to be decided on Tuesday

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has shelved plans to host any international matches this year but the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) are meeting on Oct 2 in Colombo to decide whether a team can be sent for a three-match one-day series to Pakistan.

The PCB has candidly said they have no plans to organize any international matches in place of of the cancelled New Zealand tour of Pakistan due to security concerns mounting in the region in the wake of terrorist attacks on the United States.

The PCB admits making an effort soon after New Zealand cancelled the tour by approaching some of the boards, but emphasised that they had closed all doors last week and were now concentrating on West Indies' scheduled tour to Pakistan in February-March followed up by the fresh proposed dates by New Zealand Cricket (NZC) to reschedule the tour.

So much so, the marketing department of the PCB has managed to convince the sponsors of the New Zealand series - Pakistan State Oil - to support the Black Caps rescheduled tour under the same agreement it signed earlier this month.

The PSO had agreed to sponsor New Zealand series at Rs 11.1 million. However, no such efforts have been made by the marketing division to contact multinationals to sponsor the oneday series against Sri Lanka. But an interesting scenario was developing in Sri Lanka in the background that skipper Sanath Jayasuriya was quoted as saying on cricinfo.com that he would like to play threematch one-day series in Pakistan.

"We are willing to go. Pakistan helped us in 1996 and we would like to return that favour now if our government gives allclear," he was quoted as saying. However, the million dollar question is what signals the PCB sent which forced BCCSL to seriously consider the proposal. Also, what will be the situation if the executive council of BCCSL gives go-ahead for the tour to Pakistan.

"The players have shown a keenness to go to Pakistan and help them out of a financial crisis, after the support Pakistan gave us during the 1996 World Cup," cricinfo.com quoted a BCCSL official as saying.

In the 1996 World Cup, Pakistan and India had raised a joint team to play Sri Lanka after Australia and the West Indies had forfeited their matches due to security concerns.

The BCCSL on Tuesday forwarded PCB's proposal of a makeshift arrangement to its foreign office which has yet to come back with the no objection.

The BCCSL has gone ahead by saying they would like to play the matches in Karachi and Lahore only. "We will ensure the matches will be played in areas further from the Afghan border like Karachi and Lahore." However, the BCCSL confirm that they have received no further communication from PCB if it was ready to host them.

"Since the initial invitation was made to our CEO, there has been no further communication, so once we get the clearance we will take it from there and ask the PCB whether they still want us."

Anura Tennekoon, the BCCSL chief executive, last week confirmed receiving the request from Lahore. "It is not an easy decision to make as we are uncertain about the situation. However, the interim committee we will meet next week and make the decision," he said.

The PCB have been denied the right to earn revenues estimated to be around $30million this year when India cancelled a scheduled tour earlier this year, then backed out of the Asian Test Championship and followed up by the cancellation of New Zealand tour.