MCC to sponsor Pakistan - Australia Test and International Twenty20 series

 

 

LONDON: Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the world’s oldest cricket club, has announced that it will sponsor the forthcoming neutral Test and international Twenty20 series between Pakistan and Australia, breaking a new ground by patronising international cricket for the first time in its 223-year history.

 

The announcement was made at a news conference Monday at the historic Long Room of the Lord’s Cricket Ground by  John Barclay, MCC President, Keith Bradshaw, MCC Secretary and Chief Executive, Zakir Khan, PCB Director of Operations (International), Tariq Hakim, PCN General Marketing Manager and former captain Mushtaq Muhammad.  Former captain Asif Iqbal and ex-Test cricketer Alimuddin were also present on the occasion.

 

The countries will meet in Test matches at Lords (July 13-17) and Headingley (Leeds) (July 21-25) and two T20 games at Edgbaston, Birmingham (July 5 and 6).

 

MCC has agreed to sponsor the series under its ‘Spirit of Cricket’ banner, adding weight to the cclub’s campaign to promote fair, competitive and enjoyable cricket at all levels of the game.

 

MCC’s sponsorship comes at a time when security concerns prevent Pakistan from playing Test matches at home. Since 2008 attack on Sri Lanka team in Lahore , there has no international cricket in Pakistan which is now forced to play its ‘home’ on neutral grounds.

 

Bradshaw said: “MCC is committed to the health of Test cricket, and by sponsoring the series and hosting the First Test, the Club is supporting Pakistani cricket at a time when the country’s Test calendar has been decimated. We often speak about Tests being the pinnacle of the game ­ and we’re now acting to back up those words.

 

“I believe that the Club is breaking new ground in cricket by sponsoring two such exciting sides in both Test and Twenty20 formats with a not-for-profit campaign, aimed at improving awareness of the game’s cherished spirit and spreading that message as far and as wide as possible.”

 

He noted that MCC’s Spirit of Cricket campaign is growing by the year.

 

What began as a grass-roots initiative has now expanded into the highest echelons of the game: the Indian Premier League binds its players to the Spirit of Cricket’s precept of ‘Play hard, Play fair’, and international players such as  Andrew Strauss, Umar Gul and Ricky Ponting lend their support.

 

MCC President Barclay unveiled a new honours boards which will be placed at the Away Dressing Room to mark the upcoming Test series.The Honours Boards in the Home and Away Dressing Rooms detail every century, five-wicket innings and ten-wicket match haul that has occurred at Lord’s ­ with the exception of the two centuries scored in the previous neutral Test 98 years ago.

 

In 1912 Charles Kelleway and Warren Bardsley scored centuries for Australia against South Africa in the last neutral Test held at the Lord’s but were not included on the Honours Boards. They are the first two names on the new neutral batting board.

 

This summer MCC will establish new Honours Boards for neutral Tests, both to recognise the 1912 achievements and to give the Pakistan and Australia players ­ and all other neutral Test cricketers who will follow them to Lord’s ­ the same chance to carve their names into history as all other ‘Home’ and ‘Away’ cricketers.

 

Barclay, said: “MCC’s sponsorship of both the Test and International Twenty20 series gives a major boost not just to Pakistani cricket but to our own Spirit of Cricket campaign. Pakistan thrilled us all with their victory in the ICC World Twenty20 at Lord’s last year, and Australia are currently playing incredibly high-quality Test cricket, so both series will be intriguing.”

 

Prior to the two international Twenty20 matches  at Edgbaston, MCC will play Pakistan in a floodlit Twenty20 contest at Lord’s on July 10.

 

In his message, PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt said “It is a very historic moment for PCB to enter into a unique relationship with MCC as sponsors of the Pakistan v Australia series. The Club has come forward to support this series wholeheartedly which speaks of their commitment towards cricket. I am hopeful that this relationship will further strengthen the ties between PCB and MCC. I am also extremely grateful to the England & Wales Cricket Board, which is supporting us in organising this series in the UK . ”

 

Zakir Khan appreciated the MCC gesture and said this will go a long way to help Pakistan Test cricket.”There is no lack of passsion for cricket in Pakistan even though the country is not playing at home.  We are sustaining our cricket through domestic competitions.

 

Bradshaw said MCC was very much working with PCB to revive Test cricket as Pakistan is a very talented side which was evident from its success at the last year’s World T20 Cup. He said different countries had been help Pakistan to sustain its Test cricket. Responding to a question, he said the upcoming series was not a commercial venture but a financial assistance to help Pakistan cricket.

 

Tariq Hakim said PCB was working on details relating to the co-sponsorship of the series and was in negotiations with various Pakistani companies in this regard. On the question of ticket sales of the series in Pakistan , Zakir said this issue will be discussed with MCC and ECB and was hopeful that a certain number of tickets will be allocated for sale in Pakistan .

 

Responding to allegations that leg spinner Danish Kaneira was involved in match fixing in England , he said it was too early to comment as the British Police has not contacted PCB in this regard.

 

Mushtaq Muhammad welcomed the staging of the series under the MCC banner and thought that playing on the neutral venues was the best way to sustain Pakistan cricket at the moment under the present circumstances

 

However, Asif Iqbal was of the view that PCB should have opted for staging the series in countries closer to Pakistan such as Bangladesh , Sri Lanka or UAE.He said Pakistan will not have the ‘home’ advantage because of the superior Australian team. Furthermore, he said financially PCB would not gain much.

 

 

APP

April 12, 2010

 

Last updated: 14 April 2010