Butt ready for more matches at neutral venues

Karachi:

PCB Chairman Ejaz Butt has admitted that there are very little chances of international teams travelling to Pakistan to play cricket in near future and said they will try to organise more matches at neutral venues.

Butt said even the head of the ICC special task force for Pakistan Giles Clarke, who is also Chairman of the Wales and England Cricket Board, has not been able to visit Pakistan because of security situation.

Clarke said although England were due to tour Pakistan in 2012 they had not received any security update or advisory which indicated it would be safe to play in Pakistan in the next few years.

Butt and Clarke were speaking in Headingly at the launch ceremony of the Pakistan-Australia Test series next year.

Clarke said though the task force wanted to visit Pakistan and review the situation but this could only happen when they get clearance to go to Pakistan.

Butt said PCB will continue its efforts in arranging matches for its national teams at neutral venues as they can't keep their players idle.

"We can't do that so we are trying to arrange as many cricket series for them as possible even if we have to go and play our home series at neutral venues," he told a TV Channel.

"We have played our home one-day series in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and we are also playing our Tests against Australia next year in England. If the situation does not improve we will not hesitate to organize more matches in England and at other venues," he added.