Though it has been put into the corner and has become literally isolated in the international cricket arena, Pakistan is still trying to come back into the loop by presenting an alternative to the International Cricket Council.  Pakistan has become a pariah in the international cricket community after the terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team. ICC also decided to withdraw the matches that it had allocated to Pakistan for the World Cup 2011, splitting it between India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. An event of the kinds of World Cup means good money for a cricket board, and PCB is no exception. So it has put forward two alternate proposals.

In a meeting that Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board Ijaz Bhatt had with his counterpart in Sri Lanka, he suggested a swap for World Cups or for the subcontinent boards to jointly put forward a proposal to the ICC to give Pakistan an opportunity to come up with some alternate solutions.

The first option envisages swapping the 2011 World Cup. Now it is jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Pakistan has submitted that the2011 World Cup to be swapped, which would be hosted by Australia and New Zealand. This proposal has been put forth by former ICC president Ehsan Mani, who is working in advisory capacity to the PCB on the World Cup.

But the moot point is PCB has also served a legal notice on the ICC after it took a decision to shift the matches from Pakistan to India. In such a scenario, would ICC accept any offer from Pakistan? PCB claims that the uncertain security situation prevails in India as well. Besides, the poor political relations between India and Pakistan in the wake of Mumbai attack are also being brandied as a reason for the swap. Butt contends that the pace of preparation for the World Cup in the sub-continent is not of the desired pace. He however ignores the fact that the Board of Cricket Control of India in a very short notice was able to host IPL matches with panache in South Africa, so nothing would stop them from holding it in India. Besides, it still is three years away, before the first ball would be bowled in the 2011 World Cup.

Other option that PCB is exploring is that the teams from Sub continent could ask ICC to allow PCB to host the matches allotted originally to it to be played in Dubai. The firm proposal in this regard however is yet to be put up.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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