Pakistan to lodge 2014 bid

The Pakistan Cricket Board will bid to host the 2014 World Twenty20, their chairman Ijaz Butt has stated.
The security situation in Pakistan has prevented teams from touring the country of late, and has also meant that Pakistan lost the right to host the 2008 Champions Trophy and the 2011 World Cup.
The Champions Trophy was moved to this year and is currently taking place in South Africa, while the ICC has moved Pakistan's share of 14 matches from the 2011 World Cup out of the country to be redistributed between co-hosts India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Butt is currently attending the Champions Trophy in South Africa in a bid to lobby for the return of international cricket to Pakistan, and hopes that 2014 would present a viable opportunity for a major event such as the World Twenty20, which the national team won in England earlier this year.
Butt told Pakistani newspaper The News: "These coming few days are very important for Pakistan cricket. I am planning to attend some crucial meetings with the other board counterparts in an effort to muster up their support.
"The next two Twenty20 World Cups have been already been allotted.
"We would bid to host the 2014 event in Pakistan and hopefully by that time the conditions to host international events would be ideal in our country."
The ICC board is set to meet soon to discuss the composition of the next Future Tours Programme, and Butt revealed an agreement has already been reached to stage a number of series with local rivals India in the coming years.
He added: "The ICC has given guarantee for the series that would be organised after every two years. They have also accepted that the series could be organised at neutral venues until the time the situation improves in Pakistan."

SUDEEP SINGH
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III-SEM