Peshawar to be reviewed as international venue

ICC unhappy with facilities at Peshawar

Cricinfo staff

July 19, 2006

A security guard watches over the Indian team's practice session in Peshawar © Getty Images

The International Cricket Council has written to the Pakistan board expressing concerns over the facilities at Peshawar's Arbab Niaz Stadium.

Abbas Zaidi, the PCB director board operations, said that the ICC was unhappy with the fracas that occurred during the first ODI between Pakistan and India earlier this year. "Actually, it was Chris Broad [ICC match referee from England] who was dismayed at the facilities and arrangements provided for that limited overs game in Peshawar," Zaidi told Dawn, a Karachi-based daily. "The referee had expressed his unhappiness at the lack of security arrangements and related facilities for the teams and the officials after a large number of spectators managed to barge into the ground. But despite the unfortunate fiasco, the match was played in good spirit with no untoward incident taking place."

Zaidi reiterated though that the ICC had not prohibited Peshawar from staging international fictures. "Peshawar remains one of our venues for international matches in the future. But we have asked the Peshawar administration to rectify the situation before we review the centre for staging international matches.

"We are keen to take administrative charge of the Peshawar centre from a cricketing point of view. The PCB had already sought control of stadiums at Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, which like Peshawar, are under the control of local administration."

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