ICC is expected to tell Pakistan that they will not be returning to England next season, as a sequel to allegations of spot-fixing controversy, media reports said on Wednesday.
According to ‘The Sunday Telegraph’, England was going to be Pakistan’s second home as long as the security situation in their country was desperate.
The Pakistan-Australia Test series held this summer was intended to be the first of several neutral series staged here.
But at the ICC chief executives meet in Cape Town on Monday, the ECB CEO David Collier is not going to offer Pakistan the same facilities for 2011, as a consequence of the recent decline in the tourists’ popularity.
Earlier this year the ECB had hoped that Pakistan would play India in England next summer, which would have been a real money-spinner as the two countries meet so seldom and have such large and passionate following.
But such fixtures are neither possible nor desirable after three Pakistan players — Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir — were suspended by the ICC while they are being investigated by Metropolitan Police.
According to the report, there is a small window for a one-day series between Sri Lanka — the other country to tour England next season — and Pakistan to be staged in this country in July.
But disappointing attendances for many of Pakistan’s games this summer, and the controversy involving the tainted trio, with the possibility of more charges to follow, have led to the official change of attitude towards Pakistan’s future.
