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A senior official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said on the eve of the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Dubai to pick the 2011 World Cup host that the South Asian countries who had made a joint bid were firm that the time had come for the tournament to be held in Asia.

“I really can’t say what will happen at the meeting and whether our bid would be accepted. But what I know is that all four countries are firm that as per the decision taken at the ICC meeting in Sydney last year, the 2011 event should be held in Asia,” Director cricket operations, Saleem Altaf told ‘The News.”

The former Test player who has played a big part in the preparation of the bid and compliance documents said Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh would make a final presentation of their bid on Sunday morning.

“We know that Australia and New Zealand have also made a strong case for their bid but we believe that as per the ICC decision last year, the World Cup should be held in Asia after every three tournaments.

Asia last hosted the event in 1996,” he noted.

He also made it clear that like Australia and New Zealand, the four Asian countries had also included messages of support from their head of states in the bid documents.

The ICC must decided on Sunday who would host the 2011 tournament and Altaf conceded they were chances the matter could be differed to the annual general meeting in July.

“Seven votes are required to support one bid. We already have four votes and we have worked closely with the African countries also. But incase there is a stalemate and neither bidder is able to garner the required votes the matter will be put off till July.”

He also dismissed reports that African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya were unhappy with the cancellation of the Afro Asia Cup matches by the Indian board headed by Sharad Pawar.

When it was pointed out to him that whereas Australia and New Zealand had identified the venues for the final and semi finals whereas this was not the case with the Asian bid, he said this was not a big issue and all four countries had in principle agreed on these things. “When you talk about holding a tournament in four countries the fact that we have finalized the venues is more then enough.”

He also didn’t agree that the fact that India and Pakistan had still not been able to close the accounts book for the 1996 event would reflect poorly on them.

“The fact is that Asia is the biggest market for cricket today and now it is all a matter of prestige for us not money. All four of us are firm we want the World Cup.”

Altaf however hinted that eventually if there was a stalemate the ICC allocation of its tournaments for the next few years could be done after a consensus among the members of the board.

Pakistan has also bid for the 2008 Champions Trophy.

Shaharyar Khan the PCB Chairman has left for Dubai to attend the ICC moot.

Source: The News

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