LAHORE: Pakistan’s isolation in international cricket is likely to continue as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have refused to support the country’s bid to secure hosting rights of the 2012 Asia Cup at a meeting of the Asian Cricket Council in Dhaka.
According to sources, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt and Sultan Rana, who represented Pakistan at the ACC executive council meeting, had offered to host the 2012 event at a neutral venue and suggested Dubai. “But they met with stiff resistance from particularly the Indians who made it clear they were not willing to play at a venue which had in the past had been reckoned as suspicions,” reports said.
“The Indian contention was that in the past, cricket in the UAE had been linked to fixing and gambling and they could not accept it as a neutral venue,” reports added. He said Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had also not backed Pakistan’s plea and eventually it was decided that Bangladesh would host the event in Mirpur in 2012.
“Apparently China was never seriously discussed as a possible venue for the Asia Cup as the PCB representatives insisted that it didn’t have the required international facilities to host such a major event so soon,” a board official said.
Pakistan had successfully hosted the Asia Cup in 2008 but since then security issues and an attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore has led to foreign teams refusing to play here and Pakistan being forced to play its “home” matches at neutral venues. Interestingly, the three Asian board – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – also didn’t support or come to Pakistan’s rescue when the ICC decided to strip Pakistan of the right to host the 2011 World Cup matches after the attack on the Sri Lankan team.
