Cricket

PCB hopes India tour will cut losses

After the postponement of Australia’s Test tour and the Champions Trophy, PCB is now hoping that the home series against India early next year will shore up its financial resources. PCB Director of Cricket Operations Zakir Khan said India was not expected to raise security issues in their tour to Pakistan in January next year.

“The tour is important and we don’t believe we will face any problems with the Indians over security issues. Right throughout Champions Trophy crisis, they strongly supported us and insisted the tournament must be held in Pakistan. So we have no doubt they will come,” Zakir said.

“In a way after months without cricket a tour by India would be the perfect way to revive international cricket activities in Pakistan. It will also shore up our revenues,” he added.

Zakir said the board would send a tentative itinerary for the series involving three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 game to the Indian board for final approval.

“Since we don’t have any international commitments in next few weeks we are working on preparing venues and finalizing other details for the tour. We are also prepared for an Indian delegation to visit Pakistan for a security check ahead of the series,” Zakir said.

Meanwhile, the Board said the bidding process for the sale of television rights for the next four years was nearly complete and a deal worth approximately USD 120 million would be sealed before the tour by Indians.

“This is the best time for us to finalize the television rights deal because despite the impact Twenty20 cricket has had on the world television market there is still interest in a Indo-Pak series,” a PCB official said.

Tags: bcci, India, pakistan, pcb