Cricket: Positive spin on Pakistan tours

World cricket's senior officials are confident the international game will return to Pakistan.

How long from now? Better to ask when the world will end.

International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat yesterday gave a positive view on the situation for Pakistan, which faces a bleak future in the wake of the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore last month.

"There's no reason why not to think so," he said when asked if he was confident Pakistan would one day again host international cricket.

"You think back to other countries, [such as] Ireland, where it was not so safe in years gone by. We've got to be optimistic, got to be positive.

"Scenarios change and some day in the future we will be back in Pakistan."

Asked to offer a time when that might happen, Lorgat replied: "If I had a crystal ball I'd solve a lot of my problems."

Lorgat and ICC president David Morgan are in Wellington this week as part of the ICC centenary celebrations, which include the induction of Sir Richard Hadlee into the sport's hall of fame, and briefing the New Zealand Cricket Board on a range of issues.

A more important meeting looms on April 21 in Dubai, when they will meet the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Pakistan are due to co-host the 2011 World Cup with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Morgan is confident the tournament will be held on "the Indian sub-continent", which is somewhat less than specifying Pakistan will stay on as a host.

Morgan said that "quite clearly Pakistan is not a country where we can send teams, officials and supporters in the immediate future. There needs to be a significant change there in the level of safety and security."

That said, he maintained Pakistan must be supported by other test-playing nations, entertained on their grounds and at neutral venues. "They must not be isolated," Morgan said.

The pair were adamant cricket was in a strong position, commercially and playing-wise.

"The game is in rude health. There are some challenges but people have never shown so much interest in the game."

Morgan said that commercial and broadcasting deals put together by previous administrators for the next eight or nine years mean that "despite there being a global recession, commercially, we are very sound".

The ICC men touched on a number of issues with broad brush strokes. Getting them to elaborate to any degree was like trying to grab an eel with one hand.

One topic was off limits - neither man was interested in discussing the Indian Cricket League, the privately-run operation which set off the Indian Premier League, the Twenty20 competition which enjoys ICC support. Lorgat said there was "potential for litigation and so we would prefer not to discuss the ICL in the public domain".

He said there was no deadline to finding a solution. The ICC had been trying to find a resolution without success for the past year. It is on the agenda for further discussions at the board meeting in Dubai, a meeting at which security is certain to be top of the order of business.

The umpiring review system, which has been trialled in several series over the past six months, will also get an airing.

The ICC cricket committee will consider a vast wedge of anecdotal evidence at its meeting next month, before it goes to the chief executives, and, finally, the ICC executive in June.