Officials meet to resolve rift

2008-7-31  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AUSTRALIA cricket officials met with their India counterparts yesterday in an attempt to resolve which international Twenty20 competition its state teams will compete in.

The Victoria and Western Australia teams have qualified to compete in an international competition between the world's leading provincial teams, and there is doubt over where that competition will be and many of the terms of participation.

India says it will host a competition between the top teams of India, Australia, South Africa, England and Pakistan. It was initially scheduled to be held from late September to early October but had reportedly been delayed by disputes over player eligibility and financial terms.

India has refused to host any team which contains players involved in the Indian Cricket League - a rival Twenty20 event that runs in competition against the official Indian Premier League.

Kent, one of the two sides set to represent England, has two ICL players: Pakistan's Azhar Mahmood and Justin Kemp of South Africa.

The England and Wales Cricket Board had decided to host its own international tournament in the UAE.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and lawyer Dean Kino met Lalit Modi, the IPL supremo, in Mumbai yesterday to discuss India's plans.

"We are keen to see the best versus the best in a tournament and we are keen to see the best outcome for revenue into state cricket," Cricket Australia's Peter Young said. "But there is so much uncertainty at this point, we are yet to reach the stage where the situation is as clear as mud."

In Rawalpindi, paceman Shoaib Akhtar was among the Pakistan players cleared by doping tests ahead of the Champions Trophy.

The PCB said in a statement that 26 of the 30 probable Pakistan players had been returned clean samples following testing by the World Anti-Doping Agency on July 19 at Lahore.