Dubai : ICC President David Morgan on Wednesday welcomed news of the launch of the Pakistan-Australia Test and Twenty20 series that will take place in England during July 2010.
With international cricket not possible in Pakistan at present for security reasons, the ICC resolved to encourage members to do everything possible to ensure the game would not suffer unduly from that situation.
‘The ICC welcomes this encouraging move,’ said Morgan.
‘The England and Wales Cricket Board, PCB and Cricket Australia are all to be congratulated for this cooperative and innovative response to a situation,’ he asserted.
‘This partnership between the boards will not only enable this to happen, it will also provide finances that can be invested on the grass-roots schemes to help safeguard cricket’s future as the number one sport in Pakistan,’ said Morgan.
‘And with so many Pakistanis and Australians living in England, not to mention plenty of others who just love watching Test cricket and the ECB’s excellent track record in staging international cricket, the matches are bound to be well supported,’ added the ICC chief.
Meanwhile, the ECB chairman Giles Clarke believes the Test series between Pakistan and Australia staged in England next summer will be ‘staggeringly successful’.
Speaking at Headingley Carnegie, venue for the second Test in July, Clarke assured any concerns about appeal of Test cricket on neutral ground would be offset by energy of local Asian community.
Clarke pledged the ECB would welcome future Test cricket between other national sides on English soil, should that be wishes of the boards concerned.
‘No, I think the challenge for both sides is to play well in English conditions, which is one of the toughest tests for a cricketer.
‘From Pakistan’s point of view, it’s tough to play Australia anyway. Australia, after all, didn’t manage to win the Ashes last summer, so I think Pakistan will take quite lot of heart from that.
‘There’s a long tradition of really good quick seam bowling from Pakistan. They have some wonderful spin bowlers. Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf made lot of runs here a few years ago
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