The English and Wales Cricket Board have denied the snub of Shajrah Stadium in their upcoming series against Pakistan for links to alleged match-fixing. The Sharjah Stadium’s international return was temporarily put on hold, as the “grand old lady” of cricket in the United Arab Emirates was omitted from the list of venues hosting matches for the upcoming series against England. The Pakistan and England series commences on January 17, features 3 Test matches, 4 One Day Internationals and 3 Twenty20 internationals and will only be played entirely at two venues, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and the Dubai Sports City Stadium.
According to Pakpassion, the Sharjah Stadium, built in the early 1980s, was the hub of one-day cricket between 1984 and 2003 and has hosted 201 one-day internationals – a world record for a limited over matches venue. Arch rivals Pakistan and India played at Sharjah regularly until New Delhi refused to give permission to their national team to play at the neutral venue in 2000. When the proceedings of the Qayyum Inquiry into match-fixing were published in 2000, Sharjah Cricket Stadium’s name turned up again and again and once India refused to play there, the venue was banished to the cricketing wilderness. The ground did not stage international cricket between 2003 and last year, when Afghanistan used it for a two-match one-day series against Canada.
In recent times though the stadium had been unkempt and hardly looked fit to host cricket again. However, refurbished, revamped and relaunched, the glory days of Sharjah were back when Pakistan hosted Sri Lanka in a Test match and also a One Day international last month. Fans supporting both Asian teams packed the stadium to the rafters and to some it felt as if Sharjah had never been “away from hosting cricket”. Prior to the publication of the schedule between Pakistan and England, Sharjah had been widely expected to host at least two of the limited overs matches and there were many raised eyebrows when the schedule did not include Sharjah for any matches against England. Whispers of Sharjah being ignored for the series versus England due to the previous murmurs of match fixing began to surface and some started to question why the venue that had the best attendances against Sri Lanka was ignored.
An ECB spokesman quoted by the website denied the allegations that the Sharjah Cricket Stadium had been ignored as a venue against Pakistan due to it’s links to alleged match fixing and despite the fact that the Sharjah Stadium had once again proved that it was fit, ready and worthy of hosting international cricket. “The tour itinerary to UAE was agreed and publicised prior to the renovation work being completed at Sharjah cricket ground” stated the ECB spokesman.” He continued “ECB’s view was that it would not have been fair to supporters to change pre-publicised venues at this late stage when many would have already made travel arrangements and booked accommodation.” When asked if the Sharjah Cricket Stadium had been snubbed by the ECB due to previous alleged match fixing links, the ECB spokesman stated “No, that is not correct.” When contacted by PakPassion.net a PCB spokesman however stated that “The Pakistan Cricket Board were very keen to ensure that Sharjah was the host for at least a couple of matches against England, but the England and Wales Cricket Board were not keen on playing in Sharjah.” The PCB spokesman added “The Sharjah Cricket Stadium had done a very good recently in hosting the Sri Lankans for a Test match and a One Day International and we felt that it was worthy of hosting some cricket for the series against England.”
