BCCI is not against Champions Trophy: PCB

Lahore, Sep 13 (UNI) In a damage control excercise, the PCB today said their Indian counterpart has the right to object to the October 2009 date of Champions Trophy as they (BCCI) have their own international commitments.

Yesterday, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had blamed Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the failure to finalise dates for the next year's Champions Trophy for which they still have the hosting rights.

The BCCI's stand was that they are hosting Australia for a seven match one-day series in October 2009 and it will not be possible for them to change that for the Champions Trophy.

But today the PCB officials took a new line saying for the BCCI the series against Australia is important from financial and cricketing point of view.

The PCB Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi has been quoted by media as saying that the BCCI did not say ''no to anything''.

He was however candid enough to admit that PCB was finding it tough to get a slot for the next year's Champions Trophy.

Naghmi was quoted as saying that, ''All Boards have agreed in Dubai that the new window should ideally be September-October next year and it is just a matter of settling things with other Boards.

PCB has no worries about the new dates.'' He described the early next year's Test tour by India as the mother of all series for Pakistan cricket and added ''it would shore up the financial resources of the board. The India series is the mother of all series as the kind of revenue from one Indian series is probably equal to all the series put together''.

Intrestingly, the BCCI had strongly supported PCB's right to host the Champions Trophy and had opposed shifting of the venue from Pakistan to another country.

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