Earlier the four nation’s twenty20 championship was scheduled to be held from August 14 to 17 at Toronto, Canada. It was organized by PCB. But they had to post pone it as they could not sort out the sponsorship issues. But later the organizers could find a sponsor in the form of ‘Sports International Marketing’, and the dates of the quadrangular championship were revised and the tournament was rescheduled to October 10 to 13 2008.

Earlier, Cricket360 was informed that the Canada championship would feature Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Indies and Canada. Bangladesh Cricket Board opted to stay away from the tournament as the revised dates clashed with their home series against New Zealand. Then Bangladesh was replaced by Sri Lanka.

Similarly, West Indies wanted to post pone the Quadrangular Championship by two more weeks. Cricket360 learnt that their request was turned down because the weather condition after two weeks may not be suitable for the Tournament. Nauman Nabi, the chairman of ‘Sports International Marketing’ confirmed Maple Leaf as the venue of the Four Nations Twenty20 championship. Instead of West Indies, now Zimbabwe will participate in the Toronto Twenty20.

Pakistan was somewhat isolated from International Cricket as their home series against Australia was postponed. Further they could not turn around the tri-series in South Africa and ODI series against Sri Lanka at home. Therefore, the delay of the Quadrangular Championship did not affect them as they had enough vacant cricket days. Actually, Pakistan was ready to participate from the inception itself.

Sri Lanka is facing another problem in domestic cricket. The last twenty20 match that Sri Lanka played was the ICC Twenty World Cup 07. Recently, players including captain Mahela Jayawardhane, are opposed to their England tour starting from 21 April 09. Most of the players are involved in IPL scheduled to be held from 10 April to 29 May 09. The SCB is working out to resolve the issue.

Zimbabwe also has problems of both political and cricketing origin. They are struggling to be a good cricketing side now-a-days. Cricket360 observes, in Canada, cricket has a low profile comparing to other games. Their national team consists mainly of players of foreign origin.

But these issues are not going to diminish the quadrangular championship’s standard in anyway as all the four nations will fight their best to lift the Toronto Twenty20 Trophy.

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

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