Emirates Cricket Board chief executive officer David East is “quietly confident” the UAE will host a Pakistan-India series and has also not ruled out the possibility of hosting more elite club cricket in the future, including the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20).
Hosting a successful first leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year has now paved the way for one of the fiercest rivalries in the sport to come to the UAE.
The two Asian nations last week signed a deal to play six series over the next eight years, with the first scheduled for December next year.
That series will be played at a neutral venue, and with the UAE being the home of Pakistani international cricket since 2009, it would seem an obvious choice.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi has already publicly suggested as much, while Indian cricket chief Sunil Gavaskar has spoken glowingly about the UAE’s hosting abilities.
East said: “I’m confident it will come in due course. I don’t know exactly when but I’m quietly confident it will happen.
“The December 2015 date is the next possible opportunity as far as the tour programme dates are concerned.
“Pakistan renews its deal with us on a series by series basis and we are obviously their preferred venue at the moment because we’ve been hosting them since 2009.”
The former Essex wicketkeeper believes the IPL experience is a major reason why the UAE is in line to showcase what could be the first Test action between the two nations since December 2007.
“The success we’ve had from the IPL has broken a glass ceiling as far as India is concerned,” East said. “They showed their willingness to travel to the UAE. So I’m very confident that with the experience we’ve had with IPL, more Indian cricket will be coming to these shores.”
Describing the Pakistan-India rivalry as the biggest in world cricket, East is certain a series would command big attendances.
He said: “The fact that we have around five or six million Indians and Pakistanis living here who haven’t seen an India-Pakistan challenge for a long, long while, I think the grounds will be full.”
Gavaskar has previously backed the UAE to host the CLT20, but BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel has now confirmed the 2014 edition will be played in India.
But East said the UAE would be delighted to host the competition in the future.
He said: “It’s a possibility going forward. The experience we’ve had with the IPL has been an enormous learning experience for all of us.
“And it’s great achievement in terms of a country being able to host a huge tournament at such short notice. The BCCI have said they were impressed with the way we delivered it [the IPL].
“I think [hosting] the IPL demonstrated to them that we have the infrastructure, the skill sets and the desire to host big events.”
