Australian Cricketers Association Concern over Pakistan Tour

With the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka scheduled to start in September of this year, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been campaigning vigorously to hold to a LOI series against Australia to provide much needed match practice before this premier event. 
Due to the inability of foreign teams to visit Pakistan citing lack of security in the region, a number of alternative “home” venues were considered by the PCB. The final choices for such venues came down to Malaysia and UAE as the originally scheduled Sri Lankan grounds were unavailable due to domestic commitments. It has now been learnt that the PCB has agreed to host the forthcoming “home” series against Australia in the UAE in the months of August and September 2012. 

Recently the ICC had agreed to sanction six T20Is’ in view of “exceptional circumstances” but despite these allowances, according to sources, both countries have agreed in principle to play three ODIs’ and three Twenty20 matches in the UAE.

However, the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) which had expressed “significant concerns” recently has once again reacted with reservations towards the decision to play three ODIs and three T20Is. “The ACA continues to have concerns about the weather conditions expected in the UAE at the time of the proposed series”, Paul Marsh, the CEO, said exclusively from Melbourne. 

“Now that the PCB and CA have agreed to a schedule of matches, we will undertake a process to assess whether or not these conditions in UAE will provide a safe environment for the players to play cricket in. This will be inclusive of consultation with various experts and a pre-tour visit to the venues”, Marsh added.

According to a source, all three UAE venues will host the six matches. “With Abu Dhabi being costlier than the other two venues and more expensive in terms of hotel accommodation etc, we have proposed only one Twenty20 match at Abu Dhabi - the remaining matches in the tour can be played in Dubai and Sharjah”. 

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that efforts are underway for the ODIs’ to be scheduled during Fridays and Saturdays, the weekend in the UAE. “We are trying to schedule the ODIs’ on Fridays and Saturdays, which are holidays in the UAE. This is to garner more public support in the stadia and hence more generation of revenue for the PCB . We also expect the Pakistani media groups, coming here to cover the matches, to have a late night dead-line so as to report the match results to the common Pakistani in our country”, said Zaka Ashraf, the PCB chairman.