The following are the salient points of a Press Conference held by Chairman, PCB Mr Shaharyar M Khan at Gaddafi Stadium:

ICC Annual Conference, London, June 28-29

-- Neutral Umpires for ODI
Chairman PCB intervened at the Executive Board Meeting to partially reverse the decision of the Cricket Committee and Chief Executive Committee that had not acceded to Pakistan's request for neutral Umpires for ODI's. The Executive Board decided that neutral umpires may be appointed for ODI's if both the home board and visiting board agreed. Accordingly, Chairman PCB has obtained the approval of ECB for neutral umpires to be appointed for the five ODI matches in Pakistan during England's forthcoming tour. PCB hopes that a similar arrangements will be agreed for the Pakistan-India series in 2006.

-- The Experimental Substitutes Rule
PCB Chairman expressed his reservations to the new substitute rule on grounds of principle. The experimental rule will, however, remain in place for a further 9 months.

-- Governance Review Committee
Mr Shaharyar M Khan was elected Chairman of the ICC Governance Review Committee at the ICC Executive Board Meeting in London.

England's Tour of Pakistan

Details of the itinerary were finalized with ECB and despite initial reluctance to play Tests in Karachi and Mutlan for security reasons, ECB has agreed to a Test in Multan and to an ODI in Karachi The itinerary was based on the premise that Karachi would not be excluded from the itinerary and that play for 6 hours per day would be guaranteed in all Tests. The ODIs were to be held in stadiums that were equipped with lights and play scheduled between 11:30 a.m. till 6:30 p.m. in order to a avoid decisive advantage of early dew favouring the bowling side in early mornings and late night dew favouring the batting side. In this way the decisive advantage of the toss would be significantly reduced and a contest on even playing conditions ensured.

Pakistan Room at the Oval

The new stand at the Oval was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on July 12 where rooms specially dedicated to cricketing countries were made available. India and Australia have already been allocated dedicated rooms in the new development. During his stay in London, the Chairman PCB urged Pakistani entrepreneurs to raise sufficient funds for the Surrey Country Cricket Club to dedicate a Pakistani Room which PCB has decided would commemorate the significant contribution of the late Fazal Mahmood to Pakistan cricket. The Chairman is hopeful that the Pakistan community would rise to the occasion by making an appropriate ntribution.

Sponsorship of regions, academies and grass roots cricket

PCB Chairman held preliminary discussions with parties interested in sponsoring regional teams, academies and gross roots cricket (sub-first class). PCB intends to publish an invitation for tender later this month and it is hoped that interested parties would respond positively to the tender.

New season

The following amendments to the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy will be implemented for the coming season:

1. Two regional teams will be added to the competition namely, Azad Kashmir/Islamabad/Gujrat and Northern Areas/Abbotabad region. Thus NWFP will have two teams in the competition. There will now be 11 regions and 13 teams, two each from Lahore and Karachi divided geographically under towns.

2. There would be a Gold Division (comprising 7 regional teams) and a Silver Division (comprising 6 regional teams). All matches would be first class with promotion/relegation of one team each in the two divisions.

Preparation for England Tour

Preparations for the England tour will comprise three 4-day trial matches between regional teams and the Rest of Pakistan. Peshawar, the national champions will play a 4 day match against the Rest of Pakistan as a curtain raiser to the season. The remaining trial matches will be played in Karachi and Lahore. The dates for these matches are as follows:

A 10 day pre-test camp will also be set-up before the England series. National players with English Counties will be asked to return in good time before the camp and the trial matches.

South Africa Academies and Australia "A" will also be touring Pakistan in August and September respectively. Fixtures in these series will also provide testing ground for our younger players.

All players in the National and Reserve Squad will be brought to top fitness under the guidance of National Coach Bob Woolmer and Fitness Trainers Murray Stevenson and Grant Comption and Daryl Lifson.

Abbas Zaidi
Director (Board Operations)

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Pakistan Cricket Board)