Cricket Australia has shown interest in an extended Twenty20 series for their upcoming matches against Pakistan in August. Pakistan and Australia may propose a five-match Twenty20 series to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The venue for Pakistan’s home series with Australia is yet to be finalised after Sri Lanka pulled out of hosting the series due to a clash with the dates of the Sri Lanka Premier League. As a result, Pakistan was forced to look for other venues and was considering the UAE and Malaysia. However, due to the cost factor, Malaysia might be finalised in a few days as it is cheaper than the UAE, Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) director of international cricket Intikhab Alam said.
The PCB initially suggested a seven-match Twenty20 series to replace the ODI series which was rejected by the ICC. As per ICC rules, no Twenty20 series can comprise more than three matches and teams are allowed to play only 12 Twenty20 matches in a year except during a World Twenty20 year during which they are allowed to play upto 15 matches.
Cricket Australia’s James Sutherland was open to the idea of an extended Twenty20 series and was ready to propose it to the ICC.
“We haven’t had any formal discussions about that but at some stage it may well be that we need to talk to the ICC about that. There is good reason why the ICC has decided that only a limited number of Twenty20 matches can be played in one particular series. But in the first instance it’s up to Pakistan to determine the format of the series that they think is going to work out. They need a venue first. It may well be we then put a formal proposition to the ICC that in exceptional circumstances it might be an option that they look favourably on,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Sutherland as saying.
