Ball in BCCI's court; Pakistan agrees to play Woolmer fund raiser

Lahore, July 21 (UNI) Going back on its decision of not playing the fund raiser match for the Bob Woolmer Academy, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today confirmed it was ready to play a special Twenty20 match, provided its counterpart in India -- the BCCI, too gives consent to the proposal.

The PCB has conveyed the same to Gill Woolmer, the wife of late Pakistan coach.

Woolmer, who died during the World Cup 2007 in March, wanted to start a Cricket Academy in South Africa to promote the game at the grassroot level. After his death, his wife Gill sent an official request to PCB for playing a Twenty-20 Cricket match either in UK or in India, the proceeds of which would be utilized for the development of this Academy.

A statment issued by the Pakistan Board says, ''The Board (PCB) agreed to the idea immediately and said that it would offer all out support to Bob Woolmer's family in this matter as a tribute to their National Coach.'' ''PCB has already communicated to Gill Woolmer its commitment to play this match and will certainly opt for any venue that the host Board agrees upon, be it ECB or BCCI.

In this regard, PCB is even willing to play this match during the forthcoming Pakistan tour to India in November-December 2007 and consent from BCCI is awaited on this,'' the release added.

The PCB earlier expressed their inablity to release the players for the match citing ''extremely busy'' busy schedule.

PCB's Director communications Ahsan Malik was quoted as saying last Thursday, ''We really want our team to play for such a good cause but the problem is that our international schedule is so congested that it is really difficult to find a slot for another match.'' UNI