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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recommended Australia as the neutral venue to host Pakistan's home international matches which are affected due to security situation in the region.

A spokesman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) admitted that the suggestion was made by a top official of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"It is just a suggestion which was made long time ago. But a decision on which would be the neutral venue will be taken on the executive board meeting of the ICC scheduled for Thursday and Friday," the spokesman said.

Pakistan has pointed Morocco, Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the neutral venues on which it would prefer to fulfil its home international commitments.

The ICC's offer as Australia as the neutral venue came earlier this month and days after ICC president Malcolm Gray said Pakistan's home Test matches would have to be played on foreign soil in the backdrop of current political situation.

The offer was debated by the top hierarchy of the PCB during its last week's meeting the Gaddafi Stadium in which it was decided that either Sharjah, Morocco, Abu Dhabi and Dubai would be accepted as neutral venues.

The offer was politely turned down on the pretext that Pakistan would not enjoy home condition advantage if the matches were played in Australia.

The pitches are hard and bouncy in Australia while the boundaries are as big as 100 yards. Besides, the outfields are also hard which often lead to injuries, specially to fast bowlers.

On the contrary, pitches are low and spinners friendly in this part of the world while the boundaries are around 75-80 yards. However, the PCB face as uneasy time as out of the four venues, three are not recognized centres. Only Sharjah, which has hosted 178 one-day internationals, is an ICC accepted centre.

Before the ICC executive board gives go-ahead to any of the centres, it is mandatory for its cricket committee to visit the venues and determine if the stadia were of international standard and had basic infrastructure facilities to host international matches.

While the Abu Dhabi stadium is still in development stages, Dubai has hosted club games. Morocco has not staged any game of significant though the initial feedback is that it is an excellent complex and is set to stage one-day internationals from sometime next year.

© Dawn