"With Pakistan back hosting cricket we should definitely go and tour there" : Ian Watmore

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New England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Ian Watmore speaking to the press:

"Let's start with more warm words. They have been awesome and particularly this week or last week when the West Indies women stepped into the breach to give us an international women's series. Both countries, and indeed Ireland and Australia coming over as well, deserve our thanks, as does everyone involved at the ECB in putting on behind closed doors cricket at breakneck speed in a way that, I think, means we are still the only international sport to have really played in the post Covid world -- so an awesome job by everybody.

"My personal view is that with Pakistan, for example, back on hosting cricket we should definitely go and tour there if it is at all safe to do, for both health and other reasons, because I think it would be brilliant for us and for them to get cricket back on. The West Indies are obviously one of our favourite Test nations to play -- theit style of cricket and their love for the game is brilliant and I would love (for England) to go back and tour there as well. But we have to fit all that into a complex international schedule which the ICC are having trouble running at the moment because of all the Covid outbreaks around the world and having to postpone events.

 

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Pakistan cricket coach Misbah-ul-Haq urged more nations to tour the country, saying Monday the sport needs "mutual support" to recover from the coronavirus crisis.

His appeal comes just a week after Pakistan finished a tour of England, where they played three Tests and as many Twenty20 internationals in empty stadiums.

During the trip the squad spent two months in a bio-secure environment after several players tested positive for Covid-19 before the trip.

Even before the pandemic, Pakistan struggled to attract touring teams after militants attacked the Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore in 2009.

Security has improved, however, and last year Pakistan squared off against Sri Lanka in what was its first home Test in a decade.

Misbah said he hoped teams such as England would consider travelling to Pakistan as global sport slowly returns following months of inactivity.

"Our tour to England was important for both countries," Misbah told a press conference in the eastern city of Lahore.

"It was also important to support the cricket world in general and English cricket in particular in these testing times of Covid-19.

"Pakistan also deserves similar support from other countries. These are times when the cricket world needs mutual support."

Last week, England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Ian Watmore said England should "definitely" tour Pakistan provided it was safe to do so.

https://www.france24.com/en/20200907-misbah-calls-on-cricket-rivals-to-tour-pakistan

 

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Pakistan can arrange a tri-series at home. We don't see those much anymore.

 

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New ECB chairman Ian Watmore feels the COVID-19 pandemic would leave the board with “very severe cash constraints and a global game in crisis” if it continues to rage on and disrupts the next domestic season.

The coronavirus outbreak forced a cricket shutdown in March and Watmore said ECB has a guaranteed shortfall of 100m this year against a pre-COVID-19 income of around 475m anticipated for 2020. He said recovering from the losses of the 2020 season will require a mindset of “same ambition, just less money” but it could get much more serious if the global health crisis continues to affect the game next year as well.

‘Cash constraints’

“Provided we can get cricket back to somewhere near normality next season ... we have four years to recover one year’s losses, where each of those years has double the income of the recent past,” Watmore wrote in a blog post on the ECB’s website.

“What is more concerning is the possibility that our next domestic season is severely disrupted by COVID, too - with more cricket cancelled, played behind closed doors, or with very limited crowds. At this point, we will have two years of losses to recover with only three years left of the current funding cycle, coupled with very severe cash constraints, and a global game in crisis.”

Watmore said ECB’s “ambition” would probably have to be reduced significantly.

‘Ephemeral’

“We must have a plan for this were it to occur, but the whole game and governments around the world must equally do everything we can to avoid this situation occurring.” According to Watmore, “An obsessive focus on cash and cashflow, combined with a sharp period of cost reduction and efficiencies across the whole game, starting with the ECB itself will be essential to reducing outgoings and buying time.”

The resumption of international cricket amid the pandemic with series against West Indies, Pakistan and Australia helped England bridge the financial gaps but Watmore warned this is “ephemeral.”

“The game has also been brilliant in getting behind-closed-door men’s and women’s cricket going, internationally, at county/regional level and recreationally. While it appears as if the game has bridged the financial gaps, this is ephemeral and the financial day of reckoning is yet to come.”

https://sportstar.thehindu.com/cric...9-cricket-crisis-finances/article32559464.ece