The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials have expressed their satisfaction over the infrastructure available in Doha to stage their proposed Twenty20 league but they have not ruled out the UAE as an option.
The UAE has been Pakistan’s ‘home’ for the past seven years as international teams refused to tour the country following a terror att-ack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2008.
The PCB were keen on hosting the inaugural Pakistan Super League in the UAE in February next year but with the Emirates Cricket Board allotting their three international stadiums in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah to the Masters Cricket League during the same period, they have been forced to look at other venues.
The PCB has a window of staging their competition until May next year but they are intent on holding it in February. A final call on the venue and the bidding process for selling team franchises, as well as broadcasting and merchandising rights is expected to be made next month with the PCB still in talks with the ECB.
A seven-member PCB delegation reportedly was in the UAE before they headed to Qatar last week where they held several meetings on the possibility and management of the T20 league.
Doha’s Asian Town Cricket Stadium, which has a 14,000 seat capacity is the proposed venue.
“Though there is only one stadium available in Doha we feel that our T20 league can be successfully hosted there only if we can increase the number of pitches,” a PCB source told Sport360 Tuesday.
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“Right now there are three pitches at the stadium but if we can get it up to five, then it would be great. Qatar is a strong option for us while we haven’t ruled out UAE yet because you can never say no.”
“The authorities in Qatar are really keen to build a strong relationship with PCB so we’ve received good vibes but there is still time before a final decision is made,” he added.
The head of the Qatar Cricket Association, Gul Khan believes that there is a 70 per cent chance that the event could be hosted by his country after formal talks with senior PCB officials.
“We want some big international tournaments here,” Khan said.
“This is a good experience for everybody. It’s good for Qatar, it’s good for cricket.” He added that “big players, big names” would take part in the tournament.
The event should prove popular among Qatar’s huge Asian community with around 90,000 Pakistanis living in the country.
In addition, expatriates from other cricketing nations include more than half a million residents from India, 150,000 from Bangladesh and 100,000 from Sri Lanka.
