After Zimbabwe, NZ offers to play in Pak for flood victims

After Zimbabwe, New Zealand has offered to tour Pakistan for a one-off exhibition match to raise funds for the victims of the floods that has devastated the strife-torn country, a Pakistan Cricket Board official said on Sunday.

A senior PCB official said that apart from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, New Zealand Cricket had also conveyed to the PCB that they were willing to play in Pakistan to raise funds for the flood victims.

"All in all the situation is such that these matches might eventually also lead to the full resumption of international cricket in Pakistan," he said.

Presently, PCB is in talks with ZCU after the African country has expressed interest in touring Pakistan for a full series to raise funds for relief efforts.

Both ZCU and NZC's offer has come as a big boost for PCB after foreign teams have refused to tour Pakistan since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team at Lahore in March last year.

Since then, the security scenario in Pakistan has made it a virtual no-go area for foreign teams, forcing the cricketing nation to play its home series on foreign soil.

To add to it, the International Cricket Council also shifted Pakistan's share of the 2011 World Cup matches to the other three host countries - India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

"Our players and people are starved for international cricket and the good thing is that now things are starting to happen. We can't give details right now but things are moving in the right direction," the official said.

He also said that that PCB would start its process of playing flood relief matches with an exhibition game in England followed by a match in Dubai against South Africa in October.

The official said Pakistan was also making efforts to seek the cooperation of the Indian cricket board (BCCI) in its efforts to charity matches for flood victims.

"Obviously, an Indo-Pak match always draw big crowds and evoke huge interest. So, if we make such a match possible at any venue it would allow us to raise lot of funds for the flood victims," he said.