The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : PCB confident of hosting Champions Trophy

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PCB confident of hosting Champions Trophy

Karachi: With pressure mounting on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to review its decision to award the Champions Trophy to Pakistan, the nation’s Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday said it does not see the possibility of any boycott and is confident of hosting a quality event.

“We don’t believe any teams will boycott the Champions Trophy because the entire cricket world is backing us and the ICC is satisfied that we are doing our best to provide the best security for the event,” PCB Chief Operating Officer (COO) Shafqat Naghmi said.

Naghmi said after some players raised security concerns over travelling to the troubled nation, the ICC executive board had decided to form the special task force.

“We hope the task force which is due to visit Pakistan next month will allay the fears of these players and boards.

“The bottom line is that it was a consensus decision to award the event to Pakistan after a lot of studies and discussions on the security situation and arrangements,” he added.

The PCB COO also said that the ICC was 100 per cent behind Pakistan in the organisation of the tournament.

“So the issues of security will hopefully be sorted out with the players and boards very soon.” The Champions Trophy organisers said they are working overtime to make the biennial event a big success.

The organisers also made it clear they had not disrupted their preparations for the mega event and neither had they received any information that some players or teams might pull out of the event due to security concerns.

“We have received no such information at this point of time and our work is progressing smoothly and fine. We have received no resistance or reluctance from any one,” said Ahmed Farooq, the event director. “We never disrupted our preparations on for last six months and we have always been certain the event would be held on schedule. We have given our work extra speed and are working day and night to sort things out,” he said.

Apprehensions

The England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia said they will take a final decision on their participation next month based on the last minute security feedback from their experts. — PTI

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