The International Cricket Council (ICC) Development Committee meeting will be held at Lahore on December 7 and 8. The meeting was initially scheduled for October 20 and 21 but was cancelled because of security concerns. The Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had managed to get the meeting reallocated and rescheduled in Lahore during ICC's executive board meeting held in Colombo on September 30 and October 1 after some of the members had suggested to shift the meeting to Amsterdam, Holland.

The two-day summit will also be participated by ICC President Malcolm Gray and Chief Executive Malcolm Speed. Other participants include: Andrew Eade (ICC Global Development Manager), John Wright (Europe Representative), Zakir Hussain Syed (Asia Representative), Mark Stafford (EAP Representative), Ellis Lewis (Americas Representative), Maqbul Dudhia (Africa Representative), Roger Knight (MCC Delegate), Rene van Lerschot (Associate Delegate) and Faisal Hasnain (Chief Financial Officer).

"It is a very good sign for Pakistan cricket that such a high profile meeting is taking place in the country. The added flavor in the meeting is the participation of ICC President Malcolm Gray who usually doesn't attend development meetings", PCB Director Chishty Mujahid said in a statement.

"Pakistan has been and is an absolutely safe country and any team that wants to come and play and foreigners who want to visit Pakistan will have no problems whatsoever", he added.

This is the second major event inside a month that will take place in the country. Last month, Englishman Bob Woolmer spent more than a week in Lahore in connection with his Bob Woolmer Cricket Coaches Course that was held under the auspices of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

Asked if the December meeting would break the ice and help revive international cricket in Pakistan, Chishty Mujahid said: "I think the ice broke with the visit of ICC High Performance Manager Bob Woolmer (last month). It is now the melting of the ice, particularly when the ICC President and the Chief Executive are coming".

"PCB and ICC enjoy excellent relations which I think would strengthen further after they decided to reschedule the meeting in Lahore. In fact, Pakistan has very good bilateral relations with most of the cricket boards. And this meeting is, in fact, evidence from the fact that the PCB in general and its Chairman in particular is held in high regard by all the other colleagues", the PCB Director said.

Samiul Hasan
GM Media
14 November 2002

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