ICC chief executive to visit Pakistan next week

LAHORE: Manu Sawhney, Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), will be visiting Pakistan next week to initiate preliminary negotiations with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on hosting ICC events in the 2023 and 2031 period.

Sawhney, the 56-year-old Indian entrepreneur who succeeded former South African wicket-keeper David Richardson as CEO in April 2019, will land in Islamabad on January 22 and then travel to Lahore’s PCB headquarters on January 23.

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He is scheduled to meet senior government officials in the federal capital and will talk about issues of common interest with the top leadership of the PCB during his visit to Lahore.

It will be Sawhney’s maiden trip to Pakistan, but in the last four months the third by a senior ICC official since ICC Deputy Chairman Imran Khawaja and ICC General Manager Cricket, Geoff Allardice, toured Lahore and Rawalpindi during and after the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Twenty20 International series and first Test, separately.

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The PCB spokesperson said, “The ICC has developed extremely high standards for the implementation of events. Next week’s discussions will help the PCB know about their requirements from the ICC, which, in effect, will assist the PCB in the planning of their bid report.” It is only the beginning of a long phase, he added.