The PCB on Thursday rescheduled the Pakistan A and Afghanistan series following pressure from different quarters over the venue. The match at Abbottabad was relocated to Islamabad as the city is the centre of media attention due to death of Osama Bin Laden there. The PCB put aside the global focus on Abbottabad where the Al-Qaeda leader was killed in a US assault, by scheduling a match of the Afghanistan team on May 29 but now it has rescheduled the itinerary, removing Abbottabad as host of one of the three matches. Until the May 2 assault in which Osama was killed in his compound, Abbottabad was just one of the many small holiday resorts in Pakistan. The PCB’s decision to schedule the match in Abbottabad soon after the Osama killing had generating debate on choice of the venue. But a PCB official explained the match between Pakistan A and Afghanistan was scheduled before the Osama incident. “We had chosen Abbottabad because it is placed at a higher altitude and is much cooler at this time of the year when the weather is very hot in other parts of the country,” the PCB spokesperson said. “The Afghanistan players have been to Pakistan before to train and play practice matches. But this is this first time they are playing a PCB sanctioned representative series in the country,” he said. Afghanistan originally requested the PCB to give them a one-day international series but the board instead scheduled a series against the national A team saying the senior team was busy in other commitments. Schedule
May 25: Wednesday – First One Day at Diamond Ground, Islamabad (Day)
May 27: Friday – Second One Day at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi (Day)
May 29: Sunday – Third One Day at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad (D/N).