DUBAI: The Pakistan Cricket Board, which has long adopted the United Arab Emirates as their ‘home’ venue for international fixtures, has reached agreement with the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) on the scheduling of major cricket tournaments in the UAE.
Alongside the scheduling discussions, the Pakistan board also secured a commitment from the ECB for a “significant reduction of the costs to PCB of holding these tournaments with immediate effect”.
The matter had come up for discussion after the PCB raised concerns over potential scheduling conflicts with its Pakistan Super League (PSL) and PCB’s other bilateral home series following announcements of plans to host three franchise based leagues in the UAE.
Not only did the ECB declare plans to launch its own Twenty20 league, but it also endorsed the T10 League a ten-over format cricket league. If that were not enough, the Afghanistan Cricket Board announced plans for its own Afghanistan Premier League, which too was to be hosted in the UAE.
To protect its commercial interests, the PCB sought written assurances from the ECB that they would not host any T20 Leagues which could create a conflict of interest with their bilateral fixtures and the PSL.
A top PCB official was also quoted in Pakistani media as having said that the PCB was considering Malaysia as an alternative to the UAE as potential home venues in case the ECB was not able to fulfil their request.
PCB released the following statement after the negotiations were concluded:
“The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) have held fruitful discussions on matters of mutual interest.
“In principle both Boards are agreed that:
*PCB will continue to host its major tournaments in the UAE.
*The ECB commits to a significant reduction of the costs to PCB of holding these tournaments with immediate effect.
*The ECB will host a T20 and T10 League from Dec 10, 2018 to Jan 10, 2019 when there are no PCB fixtures in the UAE.
*The ECB will not host any League during the time when the PCB/PSL T20/ODI fixtures are being played in the UAE.”
