Dubai: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, a bustling venue, may host matches from the planned one-day series between Pakistan and Australia next March.
Sharjah Stadium, which became the first away-home venue for Pakistan by staging not only their One-Day matches but also Tests, is now the home venue for Afghanistan too. It is currently staging the Afghanistan Premier League and is gearing up for the T10 League as well as the first edition of the UAE T20X League at the year-end. Among the other possible events are the fourth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and Indian Premier League (IPL) (if shifted out of India due to elections).
Ehsan Mani, the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Abdul Rehman Bukhatir, who brought international cricket to UAE through the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, met at the City Gate Tower, the new Bukhatir Group’s headquarters. Bukhatir congratulated Mani on his new role and had talks on how to boost the long-standing relationship with the PCB.
Mani was recently appointed by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to see a makeover in Pakistan’s cricket fortunes and Sharjah was one of the favourite grounds of Khan during his playing days. Bukhatir and Mani are understood to have discussed matters of common interest and expressed their mutual desire and commitment to promoting cricket in the region.
Pakistan’s Test and Twenty20 series against Australia is now on in the UAE but the One-day series will be held only in March. Plans are on to stage a five-match ODI series in the UAE and this series will be of additional significance for both the teams with the 2019 ICC World Cup to be held in England due to start in May.
Pakistan’s T20 series against New Zealand will commence from October 31. The news from New Zealand camp is that their star player Martin Guptill will miss the tour due to a left calf strain. The ‘Black Caps’ have already arrived in the UAE to get acquainted to the conditions and have recorded a 2-1 series win over Pakistan ‘A’ during last week.
Meanwhile, Dubai International Stadium will now extend their lead as the venue which has hosted the maximum number of T20 Internationals in the world during the coming days. The stadium will be hosting four T20 Internationals to inch toward the half-century mark. Dubai has hosted 43 T20 Internationals so far, six more than Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka.
The organisers will soon be issuing a season ticket soon for the fans to watch all four T20Is against Australia and New Zealand.
